Preparation of lyotropic liquid crystals/silica hybrid thin films retaining their self-assembled structures

Abstract

We prepared silica thin films hybridized with lyotropic liquid crystals by dip-coating of sol mixtures onto a glass substrate. The hybrid films were characterized by X-ray diffraction measurement and UV-Vis spectroscopy. As a result, the hybrid films had immobilized columnar assemblies of lyotropic liquid crystals. Furthermore, we achieved their in-plane orientation in a large area.