Liquid Crystals Templating

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The review article report on “Liquid crystals templating” was well-written and systematically arranged. In this review paper, the author has explained a brief overview of the key developments in the lyotropic and thermotropic liquid crystal templating. Also, the review discusses the preparation conditions of the liquid crystals templates along with their important applications. Overall, the author has gathered much information in the field of liquid crystal templates to determine the importance of templating methods. Before accepting this paper, the author requires to do a few essential modifications in the review article.

1. In the review article, the author has discussed various templating methods for different applications, but the author did not mention complications of the particular methods and how the technical challenges of templating methods could be solved for obtaining desired applications.

2. The author should have given a table of summarized published articles for the respective templating method for a clear understanding of the reader.

3. The author needs to give a proper explanation for the schematic mechanism of chiral nematic templating method

4. The author needs to reproduce Figure 13 because the resolution of the image is not observable

5. In the present review paper, the author did not address the recent achievements in the liquid crystal templating methods.

Author Response

1. In the review article, the author has discussed various templating methods for different applications, but the author did not mention complications of the particular methods and how the technical challenges of templating methods could be solved for obtaining desired applications. The author should have given a table of summarized published articles for the respective templating method for a clear understanding of the reader.

The manuscript does discuss the advantages and complications of templating methods. More of these discussions are provided in the revised version. For example in section 2 the following statements are added. “In the true liquid crystal templating, the silica precursor was hydrolysed and polymerised within the liquid crystal phase to form the mesoporous silica product. The procedure allowed the formation of mesoporous mono domains as the symmetry and structure of the mesoporous product could be predicted from the surfactant phase diagram. The method of true liquid crystal templating was valuable as it is a one-step process”. Similarly the following text is added to section 2.1 “In 1997, Attard et al., produced mesoporous platinum by the chemical reduction of metal salts dissolved in the aqueous domains of a hexagonal lyotropic liquid crystal phase. These nanostructures were granular in nature and were useful for catalysis. However, as applications such as sensors required the nanomaterials in thin film form, they later on developed approaches to electrodeposit the metaillic mesoporous platinum films with controlled nanostructures from lyotropic liquid crystalline mixtures".

A couple more changes to the text are also made and are highlighted in red in the revised version of the paper. 

2.The author needs to give a proper explanation for the schematic mechanism of chiral nematic templating method.

In section 3.1 additional details describing the chiral nematic templating is provided in the revised version. “In this work the templated film was achieved by prefabricating the polymer network with a left-handed helical structure and then refilling it with a cholesteric liquid crystal with a right-handed helical structure (Figure 10). At first the LC cell was filled with the chiral nematic mixture having left handed helix and the sample was photo-polymerised (Figure 10a). When the sample was washed with cyclohexane polymer network with a left handed helical structure was obtained as showed in figure 10b. Finally, the polymer network was refilled with the chiral nematic mixture having right handed helical structure”.

3. The author needs to reproduce Figure 13 because the resolution of the image is not observable.

Figure 13 has now been replaced with a better resolution image in the revised version.

4. In the present review paper, the author did not address the recent achievements in the liquid crystal templating methods.

In the revised version, 4 more recent papers on liquid crystal templating published since 2019 are added and relevant text is included in relevant sections. The new references are ref. 59, 71, 75 and 80.

Reviewer 2 Report

This article is a review article to introduce the liquid crystal templating, which includes using the orientation of the lyotropic/thermtropic LC molecules to create templated structures and  introduce the the applications of these novel materials in various field.  The liquid crystal can self-assembled to various and interested structures, thus studying the topological texture of LC always attracts many different research fields.  This review article can give reader a concept and development on the liquid-crystal templating in the pass years. However, the cited reference in this article stops at 2018.  If the author can add the recent papers on this field, it will be better.  One more thing is that the resolution of the figures in this article is too poor.  I suggest the author to solve the resolution problem before publish.

Author Response

If the author can add the recent papers on this field, it will be better.

In the revised version, 4 more recent papers on liquid crystal templating published since 2019 are added and relevant text is also included where appropriate. The new references are ref. 59, 71, 75 and 80.

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors

This paper introduces some key examples of liquid crystal templated structures and discussed the main concepts, considerations, methodologies, and applications.

This paper is well organized and useful for many readers.

I am appreciated if the author could add the comments on the detail of the remaining problem, and the requirements to the materials to achieve the complex geometries in 2D and 3D and for practical applications.

Author Response

I am appreciated if the author could add the comments on the detail of the remaining problem, and the requirements to the materials to achieve the complex geometries in 2D and 3D and for practical applications.

The following text has been added to the conclusion section to address this. “Moving ahead, formation of complex geometries in 2D and 3D and processes to integrate the templated structures into functional devices will be required for advanced applications. Polymer films produced in liquid crystal cells limit the scalability of the production whereas suspension methods pose challenges associated with the alignment of liquid crystals director. To some extent this has been addressed using bicontinous mesophases in applications that do not require longer range director alignment”.