Dispersion Stability of Liquid crystalline-Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes in Nematic Liquid Crystals

摘要

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are cylindrical carbon nanomaterials with significantly large aspect ratios. This structural feature brings unique phycochemical properties in the parallel and perpendicular direction of tube axis, respectively. These anisotropic properties such as extraordinary tensile strength, thermal and electrical conductivity are valuable in electronics, optics and other fields of material science and nanotechnology. However, due to substantial van der Waals attractive interactions, CNTs tend to form aggregates, which can be hardly manufactured into uniform alignment. Recently, various strategies for affording aligned CNTs have been demonstrated, including direct synthetic methods for vertically or horizontally aligned CNTs, and organizing methods via composites of dispersed CNTs with low molecular weight organic materials or polymers.