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We present experimental studies on colloidal suspensions in a lyotropic system exhibiting an isotropic−nematic−lamellar phase sequence upon decreasing the temperature. The particles are found to undergo a gas−liquid transition in the nematic phase of the suspending medium, indicating the existence of an attractive interparticle interaction. The resulting liquid phase is weakly anisotropic. Further, the nematic−lamellar transition of the liquid crystal is found to be accompanied by a liquid−solid transition of the particles.
Raghunathan et al. (Sun,) studied this question.