Structure and surface properties of lyotropic liquid crystals

One of the most interesting examples of complex fluids are the liquid cryst als. They were observed for the first time in 1888 by Friedrich Reinitzer, and since then they have been studied and used in different devices. Liquid crystals are: mesomorphic states of the matter, between the crystalline so lid and the isotropic liquid. In these systems, properties characteristic o f a fluid coexist with properties observed in crystalline solids. In this p aper, the structure and surface properties of these complex fluids, in part icular for lyotropic liquid crystals, are discussed.