Development in liquid crystalline epoxy resins and composites – A review

Liquid Crystalline Epoxy Resins LCER and Composites LCEC are very important materials widely investigated by scientists. This article briefly reviews advances in this field with an emphasis on mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. The paper describes the versatility of LCER, their curing agents, crosslinking process along with possible mechanisms. The main part of this article is dedicated to different kinds of composites, synthesized with the use of silsesquioxanes, carbon fibres, carbon nanotubes, graphene, graphene oxide as well as aluminium, cellulose, boron, aniline and urushiol based fillers. The review concludes with a short summary of possible upsides of this kind of materials, like a very broad spectrum of possible applications due to their enhanced molecular order, electrical, thermal, mechanical and optical properties. Wide range of fillers allows controlling the synthesis process in order to develop proper composite for the desired application, especially in optics, optoelectronics, electronics, coatings as well as in such sophisticated branches of industry like those demanding shape memory or anisotropy of various properties.