Dispersion and orientation of single-walled carbon nanotubes in a chromonic liquid crystal

Nawell Ould-Moussa (1) , Christophe Blanc (1) , Camilo Zamora-Ledezma (2) , Oleg D. Lavrentovich (3) , Ivan I. Smalyukh (4, 5, 6) , Mohammad F. Islam (7) , A. G. Yodh (6) , Maryse Maugey (8) , Philippe Poulin (8) , Eric Anglaret (1) , Maurizio Nobili (1)

1 L2C - Laboratoire Charles Coulomb
2 Laboratorio de Física de la Materia Condensada
3 Liquid Crystal Institute and Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program
4 Department of Physics, Liquid Crystals Materials Research
5 Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Enginering
6 Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute
7 Department of Materials Science and Engineering
8 CRPP - Centre de recherches Paul Pascal

A post-synthesis alignment of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is desirable for translating their unique anisotropic properties to a macroscopic scale. Here, we demonstrate excellent dispersion, orientation and concomitant-polarised photoluminescence of SWCNTs in a nematic chromonic liquid crystal. The methods to obtain stable suspension are described, and order parameters of the liquid crystal matrix and of the nanotubes are measured independently.

Mots clés: Single-walled carbon nanotubes; Nematic liquid crystal; Alignment

Domaines: Matériaux

Nawell Ould-Moussa, Christophe Blanc, Camilo Zamora-Ledezma, Oleg D. Lavrentovich, Ivan I. Smalyukh, et al.. Dispersion and orientation of single-walled carbon nanotubes in a chromonic liquid crystal. Liquid Crystals, 2013, 40, pp.1628-1635. ⟨10.1080/02678292.2013.772254⟩. ⟨hal-00794735⟩