Organic−Inorganic Hybrid Liquid Crystals: Hybridization of Calamitic Liquid-Crystalline Amines with Monodispersed Anisotropic TiO2 Nanoparticles

Abstract

A novel organic−inorganic hybrid thermotropic liquid crystal (LC) is developed by the hybridization of an organic amine with a mesogenic core and an acicular anisotropic TiO₂ particle through the adsorption of the amino group to the surfaces of the TiO₂. The hybrid LC shows nematic phases in wide ranges of temperatures. Variable-temperature small-angle X-ray measurements reveal that the formation of the one-dimensional nematic order of the acicular particles on a submicrometer scale induces thermotropic liquid crystallinity. This technique would lead to induction of dynamic functions in inorganic particles.