Swollen liquid crystals (SLCs): A versatile template for the synthesis of nano structured materials

Abstract

Liquid crystal (LCs) is the state of matter that exhibits properties between a conventional liquid and solid crystals. Liquid crystals mainly can be classified into two types: thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystals. A thermotropic liquid crystal shows properties that are dependent on temperature conditions. On the other hand in lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs), the amphiphiles are dissolved in a solvent and exhibit liquid crystalline properties in certain concentration ranges. In the literature, lot of reviews have been presented on thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs). But nowadays, swollen liquid crystals (SLCs) have become a much more important area of research because of their easily tunable properties, their stability and versatility of the system. Swollen liquid crystals (SLCs) consist of infinite liquid crystalline non polar cylinders organized on a hexagonal lattice in a polar medium and are prepared with the proper ratios of salted water and non polar solvents with cationic or anionic or non ionic surfactants and co surfactants i.e. water:oil:surfactant:cosurfactant. In this review article, we will briefly discuss the synthesis of swollen liquid crystals (SLCs), factors affecting their stability, different kinds of nanomaterials such as metallic, bimetallic, polymeric nanostructures synthesized inside swollen liquid crystals (SLCs) using different methods and the effect of swollen liquid crystal (SLC) confinement on the final morphology of nanomaterials with their potential applications.