Liquid crystalline inorganic nanosheets for facile synthesis of polymer hydrogels with anisotropies in structure, optical property, swelling/deswelling, and ion transport/fixation

Nobuyoshi Miyamoto ,  Morio Shintate ,  Shogo Ikeda ,  Yasutomo Hoshida ,  Yusuke Yamauchi ,  Ryuhei Motokawa and Masahiko Annaka

Abstract: Macroscopically anisotropic hydrogels were synthesized by hybridization of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) with liquid crystalline inorganic nanosheets; their anisotropies in the structure and properties are demonstrated.

Fig. 1 The photographs of (a–d) the cylindrical F3-B0.01-gel and (d) the sliced gel (ca. 1 mm thick) observed from the top. The gel was observed with the crossed polarizer/analyzer and the wave plate (retardation of 530 nm), whose optical axes are indicated by the blue and black arrows, respectively. Schematic illustration of the gel is shown in (e). The setup for the observation (a) is shown in (f).

This article is quite helpful in our gelator project, since it provides much inspiration in fabricating functional anisotropic materials, one of key words in my research. The way that exploits soft materials like gels or elastomers into liquid crystal (LC) system is noteworthy. And synthetic routes to combine both sides is highly inspiring. This hybrid system makes it promising in optical applications, also pointing out the importance to control the morphology and molecular structure of gels. Future plans in my research involves controlling the assembly of gel fibers, therefore this piece can be a useful reference.