  The self-organizing properties of nematic liquid crystals (LC) can be used to
template carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on a macroscopic dimension. The nematic
director field, coupled to the dispersed CNT long-axis, enables controlled
director reorientation using well-established methods of LC alignment
techniques, such as patterned-electrode-surface, electric fields, and magnetic
fields. Electric field induced director rotation of a nematic LC+CNT system is
of potential interests due to its possible applications as a nano
electromechanical system. The relaxation mechanism for a LC+CNT composite, on
the removal of the applied field, reveals the intrinsic dynamics of this
anisotropic system. Dielectric hysteresis and temperature dependence of the
dielectric constant coherently shows the ferroelectric-type behavior of the
LC+CNT system in the nematic phase. The strong surface anchoring of LC
molecules on CNT walls results in forming local isolated pseudo-nematic domains
in the isotropic phase. These domains, being anisotropic, respond to external
fields, but, do not relax back to the original state on switching of the field
off, showing non-volatile memory effect.
