Abstract:

A review. Liq. crystal (LC) science and technol. have made important contributions to nanoscience and nanotechnol. in areas such as medical diagnostics, drug delivery, and in high-tech devices. The major nanotechnol. contribution is their capability to provide new preparative procedures, self-assembly, and alignment of nanoscale materials with controlled uniform size, shape, and dimensionality. The self-assembly of the liq. cryst. systems, particularly the lyotropic LC type, enables the integration of lipophilic and hydrophilic reagents that meet to react at the interface. Therefore the reaction and the products properties are governed by the host liq. cryst. medium and by the external conditions (e.g., light, heat, chem. environment, and elec. and magnetic field), which directly affect the LC hosting system. This review attempts to give an overview of current research in the fields of prepn., self-assembly, and alignment of nanomaterials using mainly lyotropic LCs and partially thermotropic LCs as direct and reverse templates. [on SciFinder(R)]