DOPING OF LYOTROPIC SMECTICS WITH NONMAGNETIC PARTICLES - COMPARISON WITH FERROSMECTICS

The first examples of doped lyotropic mesophases, or amphicolloids, have been realized recently by doping a smectic quaternary mixture of cyclohexane/water/sodium dodecyl sulfate/pentanol with magnetic particles (''ferrosmectic'' phases). We present here the obtention of similar smectic phases where the doping particles are nonmagnetic and the first experiments on these phases (texture, phase diagram). The comparison of the three systems studied here (magnetic and nonmagnetic doped phases, and the initial undoped lamellar phase) shows that the modifications induced in doped phases by the presence of the particles are not dominated by the magnetic interactions.