Micellar lyotropic gels : the interplay between gel network and liquid-crystalline order

Abstract

Surfactant based lyotropic liquid-crystalline (LLC) gels in the sense that genuine micellar LLC phases are immobilized by an interpenetrating gel network were practically unknown until 2016. This “blind spot” in the landscape of anisotropic gels has now been filled to a certain extent by the results of this dissertation. Following the rational design strategy to gel surfactant based LLC phases with the help of low molecular mass gelators (LMWGs), not only lamellar and hexagonal LLC gels, but also the very first example of micellar nematic gels were obtained. Furthermore, this work has led to first important insights into how the self assembly of the gel is directed and how the gel network and the LLC phase mutually influence each other in terms of structure and morphology