Gelation of Lyotropic Liquid Crystal Phases – the Interplay between Liquid Crystalline Order and Physical Gel Formation

We present a systematical investigation of gelled lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs). This new class of soft materials combines the anisotropy of LLCs with the mechanical stability of a physical gel. The studied LLC system consists of sodium dodecyl sulfate as a surfactant, n-decanol as a cosurfactant, and water as a solvent. At room temperature, four liquid crystalline phases (lamellar Lα, nematic Nd and Nc, and hexagonal H1) are formed depending on the composition. We were successful in gelling the lyotropic lamellar phase with the low-molecular-weight organogelator 12-hydroxyoctadecanoic acid (12-HOA). The obtained gelled lamellar phase shows optical birefringence, elastic response, and no macroscopic flow. However, we were not able to obtain gels with hexagonal or nematic structure. These findings can be explained twofold. When gelling the hexagonal phase, the long-range hexagonal order was destroyed and an isotropic gel was formed. The reason might be the incompatibility between the gel fiber network a...