Liquid Crystalline Behaviors of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes in an Aqueous Sodium Cholate Dispersion
Controlling the alignment of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) on the macroscopic scale is critical for practical applications because SWCNTs are extremely anisotropic materials. One efficient technique is to create an effective SWCNT dispersion, which shows a liquid crystal (LC) phase. A stro...
Veröffentlicht in: | Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids. - 1992. - 38(2022), 29 vom: 26. Juli, Seite 8899-8905 |
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1. Verfasser: | |
Weitere Verfasser: | , , , , |
Format: | Online-Aufsatz |
Sprache: | English |
Veröffentlicht: |
2022
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Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk: | Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids |
Schlagworte: | Journal Article |
Zusammenfassung: | Controlling the alignment of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) on the macroscopic scale is critical for practical applications because SWCNTs are extremely anisotropic materials. One efficient technique is to create an effective SWCNT dispersion, which shows a liquid crystal (LC) phase. A strong acid treatment can realize SWCNT liquid crystalline dispersions. However, strong acids pose a substantial safety risk, which renders the process unfit for mass production. Herein, an isolated SWCNT dispersion displaying an LC behavior is prepared using sodium cholate without an acid treatment, and its phase transition behaviors are systematically investigated across the isotropic to biphasic to nematic phases. As the SWCNT concentration increases, the dispersion undergoes an isotropic-to-nematic phase transition in which the spindle-shaped LC droplets, or the so-called tactoids, and the Schlieren textures can be observed in the intermediate biphasic state and the nematic phase, respectively. The arrangements of SWCNTs in the tactoids and the Schlieren structures are directly investigated by polarized optical microscopy. The clear LC behaviors of the CNT dispersion suggest that the CNT orientations can be controlled by the normal surfactant-assisted method, which is a crucial advantage for the liquid-phase processing of CNT fibers and films |
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Beschreibung: | Date Revised 26.07.2022 published: Print-Electronic Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE |
ISSN: | 1520-5827 |
DOI: | 10.1021/acs.langmuir.2c01024 |