Structural,dielectric and conductivity behaviours of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide/ethylene glycol-based quenched lyotropic mesophases

The present study highlights the effect of quenching on the structural, textural and dielectric dynamics of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide/ethylene glycol binary mixtures of varying concentrations 30:70, 50:50 and 75:25 wt.%. No mesomorphism is seen in the as-prepared binary mixtures as X-ray diffraction and polarisation optical microscopy studies reveal the crystalline-like structures for the studied concentrations. With the effect of quenching, lyotropic hexagonal phase is obtained at 30:70, 50:50 wt.% concentration; however, mixture with higher 75:25 wt.% concentrations exhibit crystalline-like phase. The obtained hexagonal lyotropic phases restrain the mesomorphism up to ≈340 K and then show crystalline-like structures with the further increase in the temperature. Dielectric and relaxation behaviours of hexagonal lyotropic phases are presented in this study. The relaxation parameters of lyotropic phases are also discussed. Interestingly, the hexagonal lyotropic phases obtained for 30:70 and 50:50 wt.% concentrations exhibit ac conductivity of the order of 10^–5 S/m, which can be seen as a significant result of this study.