Effects of Dispersed Carbon Nanotubes and Emerging Supramolecular Structures on Phase Transitions in Liquid Crystals: Physico-Chemical Aspects

The current state of the study of different liquid crystalline (LC) systems doped with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is discussed. An attempt is endeavored to outline the state-of-the-art technology that has emerged after two past decades. Systematization and analysis are presented for the integration of single- and multi-walled carbon nanotubes in thermotropic (nematic, smectic, cholesteric, ferroelectric, etc.) and lyotropic LCs. Special attention is paid to the effects of alignment and supramolecular organization resulting from orientational coupling between CNTs and the LC matrix. The effects of the specific inter-molecular and inter-particle interactions and intriguing microstructural, electromagnetic, percolation, optical, and electro-optical properties are also discussed

Electrophysical properties of nematic liquid crystals under stationary and microwave electric and magnetic fields

The nematic liquid crystals in devices with non-linear characteristics, studies were carried out for their electrophysical properties under stationary and microwave electric and magnetic fields. An essential point of our study is the use of two substantially different types of LC (with Deltaepsiv values of opposite signs) in parallel sets of experiments. This allowed us to account, at a qualitative level, for effects of LC orientation and texture upon bulk electric properties