Mineral Liquid Crystals from Self-Assembly of Anisotropic Nanosystems

Abstract

In this article we review the mesogenic properties of the mineral liquid crystals (MLCs) based on molecular nanowires: Li 2 Mo 6 Se 6 ; nanotubes: Imogolite and NaNb 2 PS 10 ; molecular ribbons: V 2 O 5 ; exfoliated single sheets: smectic clays and H 3 Sb 3 P 2 O 14 ; nanorods: Boehmite (g-AlOOH), Akaganeite (b-FeOOH), Goethite (a-FeOOH); platelets: Gibbsite (Al(OH) 3); disks: Ni(OH) 2 ; bio-mineral hybrids. We then propose numerous phases that could lead to the discovery of new MLCs. We finally review how the properties of these mesophases and their collective be-havior have been used for making mesoporous composites with anisotropic properties, for making nanodevices and solar cells, as well as how they could be used to allow the measure-ment of residual dipolar couplings in NMR studies of biomolecules.