Electro-Optical Properties of Rodlike Micelles

Current Topics in Ionic Liquid Crystals

Ionic liquid crystals (ILCs), that is, ionic liquids exhibiting mesomorphism, liquid crystalline phases, and anisotropic properties, have received intense attention in the past years. Among others, this is due to their special properties arising from the combination of properties stemming from ionic liquids and from liquid crystalline arrangements. Besides interesting fundamental aspects, ILCs have been claimed to have tremendous application potential that again arises from the combination of properties and architectures that are not accessible otherwise, or at least not accessible easily by other strategies. The current review highlights recent developments in ILC research, starting with some key fundamental aspects. Further subjects covered include the synthesis and variations of modern ILCs, including the specific tuning of their mesomorphic behavior. The review concludes with reflections on some applications that may be within reach for ILCs and finally highlights a few key challenges that must be overcome prior and during true commercialization of ILCs.

Large Electro-Optic Kerr Effect in Ionic Liquid Crystals: Connecting Features of Liquid Crystals and Polyelectrolytes

The electro-optic Kerr effect in simple dipolar fluids such as nitrobenzene has been widely applied in electro-optical phase modulators and light shutters. In 2005, the discovery of the large Kerr effect in liquid-crystalline blue phases (Y. Hisakado et al., Adv. Mater. 2005, 17, 96-98.) gave new directions to the search for advanced Kerr effect materials. Even though the Kerr effect is present in all transparent and optically isotropic media, it is well known that the effect can be anomalously large in complex fluids, namely in the isotropic phase of liquid crystals or in polyelectrolyte solutions. Herein, it is shown that the Kerr effect in the isotropic phase of ionic liquid crystals combines the effective counterion polarization mechanism found in polyelectrolytes and the unique pretransitional growth of the Kerr constant found in the isotropic phase of nematic liquid crystals. Maximum Kerr constants in the order of several 10^-11  m V^-2 (ten times higher than the Kerr constant of the toxic nitrobenzene and less temperature sensitive than Kerr constants of nematic liquid crystals) make ionic liquid crystals attractive as new class of functional materials in low-speed Kerr effect applications.

Electric birefringence anomaly of solutions of ionically charged anisometric particles

The term "electric birefringence anomaly" is known as the electric birefringence (EB) signal that occurs in solutions of ionically charged anisometric particles in a narrow concentration region. The signal is of opposite sign to the normal birefringence that occurs below and above this narrow concentration region. The normal electric birefringence signals in the dilute and more concentrated regions are due to the orientation of the particles in the direction of the applied electric field. The origin for the anomalous signal was not completely understood until now. The article summarises previous results in which the anomalous results had been observed but not well understood. It shows that the birefringence anomaly occurs in systems as diverse as micellar solutions, polyelectrolytes, solutions of clays, viruses and fibres. In all these systems the anomaly signals are present at the concentration when the length of the colloidal particles including the thickness of the electric double layer are about the same as the mean distance between the colloidal particles. Under these conditions the electric double layers of the particles overlap along the main axis of the particles but not in the direction across the particles. As a consequence of this situation a dipole is built up across the particles by the migration of the counter-ions of the particles in the electric field and this dipole leads to an orientation of the particles perpendicular to the electric field. The anomalous signal can usually be observed simultaneously with the normal signal. The amplitude of the anomalous signal can be larger than the amplitude of the normal signal. As a consequence the total birefringence changes its sign in the anomalous concentration region. The anomaly signal of the clays can also be explained by a fluctuating dipole around the particles, which is due to the fact that the centre of the ionic charges of the particles does not fall on the centre of the ionic charge of the counter-ions. The resulting dipole could also explain the anomaly signal.