Smectic liquid crystal polymers as a template for ultrathin CaCO3 nanolayers

The poly(aspartic acid) (pAsp) assisted infiltration of a nanoporous smectic liquid crystalline network with CaCO3 yields only ∼1 nm thick crystalline nanolayers. This bioinspired strategy opens the way to new functional materials based on solution-grown quasi 2D crystals of only a few unit cells thick.