Solvent alignment methods

NMR spectra of chiral molecules aligned in a chiral liquid crystalline solvent. A method for the visualization of enantiomers using natural abundant filtered single and double quantum selective refocusing experiments has been proposed and its application to small chiral molecules demonstrated. A lyotropic liquid crystalline phase of an aqueous solution of polysaccharide xanthan gum has been reported as a scalable weak alignment medium for enantiodiscrimination of water soluble chiral molecules. ... 

In earlier research the alignment operation was applied to CNTs in the form of a CNT-polymer resin [24] or CNT suspended in a solvent [25]. In the method developed by Ajayan et al. [24], purified MWCNTs were dispersed in an epoxy resin which was cut with a diamond knife and a microtome in order to obtain aligned CNTs. De Heer et al. [25] used a 0.2 (im pore ceramic filter in order to create an MWCNT suspension in ethanol, and to obtain a black deposit which was transferred to a plastic surface (Delrin or Teflon) by pressing the filter onto the polymer. However, only a moderate degree of orientation and uniformity in length of the CNTs was achieved by this method. 

---