Instruct: Identify the main and secondary category of Arxiv papers based on the titles and abstracts
Query: Liquid crystalline behaviour of self-assembled Laponite PLL-PEG
  nanocomposites   Synthetic Laponite-clay particles with platelet-like shape display strong
aging when dispersed in aqueous solutions, preventing latter from reaching
their natural liquid-crystalline equilibrium state. Here we introduce a facile
method that successfully prevents this aging behaviour and enables accessing
the systems' liquid-crystal and crystalline phases. We graft the comb-like
polymer, poly(L-lysine)-g-poly(ethylene glycol) (PLL-PEG), onto the clay
surfaces from solution, thereby screening the negative surface charges and thus
ensuring steric stabilisation. We show zeta-sizer and rheology measurements,
respectively, confirming complete steric coating and that aging of dilute
samples is completely suppressed even after a year. Using evaporation as means
to concentrate the particles, we observe various liquid crystalline textures
under a polarized optical microscope (POM). Upon sequential spreading and
drying, we are also able to obtain transparent films with hierarchical
architecture.

20
The categories of this paper are: acc-phys
15
The categories of this paper are: nucl-ex
12
The categories of this paper are: nucl-th
21
The categories of this paper are: adap-org
6
The categories of this paper are: astro-ph
23
The categories of this paper are: solv-int
35
The categories of this paper are: mtrl-th
5
The categories of this paper are: gr-qc
1
The categories of this paper are: cs
10
The categories of this paper are: q-bio
27
The categories of this paper are: comp-gas
33
The categories of this paper are: plasm-ph
11
The categories of this paper are: hep-lat
36
The categories of this paper are: cmp-lg
8
The categories of this paper are: hep-ex
3
The categories of this paper are: physics