Photoluminescent lyotropic liquid crystals formed by Tyloxapol and n-dodecyl tetraethylene monoether

摘要

Graphical abstractThe schematic illustrations of the interaction between 30wt% Tyloxapol with different concentrations of C12E4to form hexagonal and Lαphases.Display OmittedAbstractPhotoluminescent lytropic liquid crystals (LLCs) were prepared in aqueous solutions fromn-dodecyl tetraethylene monoether (C12E4) and Tyloxapol, which is an oligomer of polyoxyethylenetert-octylphenyl ether (TX-100) with a polymerization degree below 7. The close packing of the seven benzene rings in Tyloxapol induces a strong π–π interaction, which makes Tyloxapol fluorescent. The Tyloxapol/C12E4mixed system were characterized by polarized optical microscopy (POM) observations, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), rheological and fluorescence measurements with close comparison to the TX-100/C12E4mixture. It was found that the type of LLCs transfered gradually from lamellar phase to hexagonal phase with increasing mass ratio of Tyloxapol to C12E4, during which an enhanced photoluminescence was obse