Hydroxyapatite (HA) nanorods in the collagen matrix of bone have a macroscopically ordered structure that has many similarities to the ordered structure of anisotropic nano-units in inorganic liquid crystals (LCs). Inspired by these similarities, we conducted the first (to our best knowledge) synthesis of HA LCs in non-polar solvents (such as cyclohexane and toluene), thus expanding the range of applicable monomers and polymers. We synthesized HA nanorods by a simple, effective, and oleic-acid-assisted hydrothermal route. The hydrothermal temperature directly modulates the aspect ratio of the HA nanorods, and indirectly modulates their LC behavior. The LC phase transition has no size limitation. Thus, our approach may be used to develop high solid content, macroscopically assembled, large-scale polymer-based bio(mimetic)-materials.

骨胶原基质中的羟基磷灰石（HA）纳米棒具有宏观有序结构，与无机液晶（LC）中的各向异性纳米单元的有序结构有很多相似之处。受这些相似性的启发，我们在非极性溶剂（例如环己烷和甲苯）中首次（据我们所知）合成了HA LC，从而扩大了适用的单体和聚合物的范围。我们通过简单，有效且油酸辅助的水热合成路线合成了HA纳米棒。水热温度直接调节HA纳米棒的长宽比，并间接调节其LC行为。LC相变没有大小限制。因此，我们的方法可用于开发高固含量，宏观组装的大规模聚合物基生物（模拟）材料。