Synthesis and alignment control of liquid-crystalline polymer-grafted nanorods

Inorganic nanorods are promising for the development of advanced devices due to their unique properties. The alignment control of these nanomaterials is crucial to exploit their potential. Various alignment methods, such as electric fields and self-assembly, have been attempted, but it is still a challenge to develop sophisticated methods for aligning nanorods over a large area. In this paper, we present a method for inducing unidirectional alignment of nanorods by utilizing nematic liquid-cyrstalline polymers, which are attractive in their ability to support organized nanostructures due to their anisotropic molecular orientation.