Nanoparticle ordered aggregates are promising candidates for future application in a variety of sensing, optical and electronic technologies, mainly based on collective interactions between individual nano-building blocks. Physicochemical properties of such assemblies depend on nanoparticle spacing, therefore a lot of effort throughout the last years was put on development of assembly methods allowing control over aggregates structure. In this minireview we describe efficient self-assembly process based on the utilization of liquid-crystalline ligands grafted onto nanoparticle surface. We show strategies used to synthesize liquid-crystalline nanoparticles as well as discuss parameters influencing structural and thermal characteristic of aggregates. It is also demonstrated that the liquid-crystalline approach offers access to dynamic self-assembly and metamaterials with anisotropic plasmonic properties, which makes this strategy unique among others.
Keywords: anisotropy; dynamic assembly; ordered aggregate; plasmonic; self-assembly.
© 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.