Physics Institute

This book aims to review the field of lyotropic liquid crystals from amphiphilic to colloidal systems, bridging the gap between the two worlds of lyotropics and thermotropics by showing that many of the features observed in standard thermotropic liquid crystals may also be observed in lyotropic systems and vice versa. Indeed, for a long time, lyotropic liquid crystals have been overshadowed by their thermotropic counterparts, mainly due to the potential for application of the latter in the display industry. This picture has somewhat shifted over the last decade, with numerous novel lyotropic systems having been discovered and formulated, bringing to light their importance in wider scientific research. For example, the understanding of viruses forming self-assembled ordered phases has largely increased as mineral liquid crystals and clays have experienced a renaissance leading to fundamental research and work on structure formation in nanotechnology. Similarly, nano-rods, nano-wires,