We report on first successful alignment of a surfactant lyotropic nematic between rubbed glass substrates either clean or
spin-coated with a polymer layer. Worsening of the alignment either at small number of rubbings (less than 60), at long
time delay before filling the cell or when washing the rubbed substrates in deionized water, suggest that the rubbinginduced
electrostatic charging of the substrate surface is the main alignment mechanism. Prepared surfonematic cells
have good optical quality allowing us to perform optical characterization of the studied surfonematic. The surfonematic
is optically negative with the weak light wavelengths dispersion. The absolute value of the birefringence is low:
-(6x10-4). For the first time we report that hemoglobin molecules can be dissolved in the surfonematic matrix.
Hemoglobin dissolved in well-aligned surfonematic matrix display polarization spectra which differ from its spectrum in
water: 1) wide absorption band in the spectral range 540-640nm for hemoglobin in the surfonematic is different from that
for water solutions of hemoglobin; 2) polarization spectra of hemoglobin in aligned surfonematic display weak
dichroism leading to the estimation of the orientation order parameter for hemoglobin molecules to be about 10-2. These
spectral features indicate that hemoglobin residues form anisotropic complexes with positively charged surfactant
residues. At the studied concentration these complexes are weakly aligned by the surfonematic matrix but are not
birefringent and do not affect the orientational order of the surfonematic matrix.
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