Materials 2009, 2(4), 1734-1761; doi:10.3390/ma2041734
Review

Liquid Crystalline Behavior and Related Properties of Colloidal Systems of Inorganic Oxide Nanosheets

Teruyuki Nakato 1,* email and Nobuyoshi Miyamoto 2 email
1 Division of Bio-Applications and Systems Engineering (BASE), Institute of Symbiotic Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Naka-cho, Koganei-shi, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan 2 Department of Life, Environment, and Materials Science, Faculty of Engineering, Fukuoka Institute of Technology, 3-30-1 Wajiro-higashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka 811-0295, Japan
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 29 August 2009; in revised form: 16 October 2009 / Accepted: 27 October 2009 / Published: 29 October 2009
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Liquid Crystals)
PDF Full-text Download PDF Full-Text [773 KB, uploaded 29 October 2009 11:36 CET]
Abstract: Inorganic layered crystals exemplified by clay minerals can be exfoliated in solvents to form colloidal dispersions of extremely thin inorganic layers that are called nanosheets. The obtained “nanosheet colloids” form lyotropic liquid crystals because of the highly anisotropic shape of the nanosheets. This system is a rare example of liquid crystals consisting of inorganic crystalline mesogens. Nanosheet colloids of photocatalytically active semiconducting oxides can exhibit unusual photoresponses that are not observed for organic liquid crystals. This review summarizes experimental work on the phase behavior of the nanosheet colloids as well as photochemical reactions observed in the clay and semiconducting nanosheets system.
Keywords: layered compound; inorganic nanosheet; colloid; liquid crystal; sol–gel transition; clay; semiconductor photocatalyst

Article Statistics

Click here to load and display the download statistics.

Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Nakato, T.; Miyamoto, N. Liquid Crystalline Behavior and Related Properties of Colloidal Systems of Inorganic Oxide Nanosheets. Materials 2009, 2, 1734-1761.

AMA Style

Nakato T, Miyamoto N. Liquid Crystalline Behavior and Related Properties of Colloidal Systems of Inorganic Oxide Nanosheets. Materials. 2009; 2(4):1734-1761.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nakato, Teruyuki; Miyamoto, Nobuyoshi. 2009. "Liquid Crystalline Behavior and Related Properties of Colloidal Systems of Inorganic Oxide Nanosheets." Materials 2, no. 4: 1734-1761.

Materials EISSN 1996-1944 Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland RSS E-Mail Table of Contents Alert