Figure 1.

Tactoids formed in nematic liquid crystalline dispersions of (a) vanadium pentoxide, (b) aluminium oxyhydroxide and (c) tobacco mosaic viruses are spindle-shaped microdroplets. (d) Schematic representations of nematic tactoids with homogeneous, intermediate and bipolar director field configurations formed in carbon nanotube dispersions. ((a) Reproduced with permission from Kaznacheev et al. [7]. Copyright © 2002 Springer. (b) Reproduced with permission from Zocher & Török [18]. Copyright © 1960 Springer. (c) Reproduced with permission from Bawden et al. [2]. Copyright © 1936 Macmillan. (d) Reproduced with permission from Jamali et al. [19]. Copyright © 2015 American Physical Society.)