Meng Fu

By Meng Fu, Zepeng Zhang, Rui Jiang and Hongbao Liu

Magnetic particles can be oriented along the magnetic field direction to achieve orderly arrangement under the magnetic field. Optical functional materials such as photonic crystal and liquid crystal can be obtained according to magnetic induced ordered nanostructure assembly. One-dimensional natural clay minerals with unique structure, composition and properties can be used as structural base to prepare anisotropic magnetic nanoparticles by decorated with magnetic particles, achieving unique optical functional properties. In this chapter, one-dimensional clay minerals@Fe3O4 nanocomposites were prepared by co-precipitation. The resulting one-dimensional clay minerals@Fe3O4 nanocomposites are superparamagnetic. They can be oriented along the direction of the magnetic field and produce an instantaneously reversible response. These magnetic mineral materials can be dispersed in a dilute acid solution to form stable colloid solutions. These stable colloid solutions produce a similar magnetically controlled liquid crystal with Bragg diffraction under an external magnetic field. Their optical properties are affected by magnetic field intensity, magnetic field direction and solid content. The results show that the functionalization of one-dimensional clay minerals has potential applications in display devices, photonic switches and other fields.

Part of the book: Clay and Clay Minerals