Correlation of the molecular structure of discotic nematic liquid crystals with their orientational order and specific features of the nematic-isotropic phase transition

The orientational order parameter S of molecules in high-temperature discotic nematic liquid-crystal phases of triphenylene derivatives is investigated as a function of the length of side flexible molecular chains at different temperatures. It is established that the orientational order parameters S in the range of the transition from the nematic phase to the isotropic liquid phase (the N _D -I transition) are smaller than those predicted from the molecular-statistical theory and computer simulation. It is shown that the N _D -I transition is close to both the isolated Landau point and the tricritical point (regardless of the chemical structure of the molecules and the anisotropy of dispersion intermolecular interactions). Consistent explanations are offered for a number of experimental findings, such as the anomalously small changes in the enthalpy and entropy upon the N _D -I transition (as compared to those revealed upon the N-I transition in calamitic nematic liquid crystals), the anomalously strong response of the isotropic phase of discotic nematic liquid crystals to external fields (thermodynamically conjugate to the order parameter S) and the long relaxation times of this response, and the formation of cybotactic discotic molecular clusters in the isotropic phase in the vicinity of the N _D -I transition.     

An image processing study of a reentrant discotic cholesteric – biaxial cholesteric phase transition

In this work, we study and characterize the cholesteric sequence of phases (Ch_Dr ? Ch_B ? Ch_D), where the first Ch_Dr is the reentrant cholesteric discotic phase, Ch_B is the cholesteric biaxial phase and the second Ch_D is the cholesteric discotic phase. This sequence of phases is studied through polarized light microscopy and image processing technique, where, for the first time, the domains and borders of these transitions are established and characterized. They are also investigated and optically characterized throughout their textures.     

Dimension of mesogenic molecules as atomic clusters

The problem regarding the mass dimension D of mesogenic molecules as atomic clusters is formulated and solved using computer simulation and analytical calculations. For a large number of compounds belonging to different chemical classes, it is shown that the cores of discotic lacunar (rodlike, lathlike) molecules forming nematic or columnar discotic (calamitic) phases have a fractional dimension 1 < D _c < 2 (D _c ≈ 1). The dependences of the dimension D _c on the symmetry, the conformation, and the structural-chemical features of the molecular core are determined. It is demonstrated that, in the region of side flexible chains in molecules of both types, the dimension D _ch can be either smaller or larger than unity, depending on the chain conformation. An analytical expression accounting for the results of numerical experiments is obtained for the dimension D _ch .     

Pressure studies on two discotic liquid crystals

Pressure-temperature diagrams have been studied for two discotic compounds, hexa-n-octyloxytriphenylene and hexa-n-decanoyloxytriphenylene, both of which exhibit the columnar (D) phase at atmospheric pressure. Two interesting results, common to both compounds, have been obtained: (a) in contrast to what is usually observed in liquid crystals of rod-like molecules, the columnar-isotropic (D-I) transition, which is enantiotropic at atmospheric pressure, becomes monotropic at high pressures; (b) dT/dP ≈ 0 for theD-I transition, implying that despite the drastic change in the molecular order at this transition, the associated volume change is extremely small.     

Experimental solution of the local-field problem in discotic liquid crystals

Polarized light-absorption spectra are obtained for single-domain planar-oriented samples of the discotic D _ho . Previously predicted spectral effects induced by resonant dipole-dipole interactions of the molecules are observed. New methods for determining the parameters of the local field in the D ho phase are developed which take into account the mixing of the molecular excitations. It is shown that the two-dimensional crystalline ordering of the molecular columns decreases the anisotropy of the local field for this phase. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 70, No. 1, 30–35 (10 July 1999)     

Lyotropic model membrane structures of hydrated DPPC: DSC and small-angle X-ray scattering studies of phase transitions in the presence of membranotropic agents

Multibilayer structures of hydrated phospholipids, often considered as model biological membranes, are, from the physical viewpoint, lyotropic liquid crystalline systems undergoing temperature-induced mesomorphic phase transitions. Effects of silver nitrate and urocanic acid on lyotropic phase states of hydrated L-α-dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) have been studied by small-angle X-ray scattering and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Both methods show increase of the main phase-transition temperature (T_m) of hydrated DPPC upon introduction of AgNO₃ or urocanic acid, decrease of pre-transition temperature (T_p) in the presence of urocanic acid and its increase in the presence of AgNO₃. Thus, urocanic acid widened the ripple-phase temperature region. Silver nitrate caused the appearance of an additional high-temperature peak on DSC thermograms, evidencing phase separation in the system. Both agents caused minor effects on DPPC lipid bilayer repeat distance (D) in gel phase, but resulted in noticeable increase of D in the liquid crystal phase with temperature as compared to undoped DPPC structures.     

Molecular orientation of lyotropic nematic phase in a mixture of two non-mesogenic compounds

We report the results of our studies on the optical and thermal properties of the mixture of two non-mesogenic compounds, namely, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and glacial acetic acid (GAA). The mixture exhibits very interesting schlieren texture of lyotropic micellar nematic (N_D) phase, SmA and SmB phases, respectively, at different concentrations of SDS in GAA sequentially when the specimen is cooled from its isotropic phase. The order parameter (S) of the lyotropic micellar nematic (N_D) phase is estimated with the help of temperature dependence of optical anisotropy from the measured values of refractive index and density data. The experimental curve showing the temperature variation of order parameter is very well fitted with the Mayer–Saupe theoretical curve. X-ray studies have also been discussed. The formation of the above phases has been confirmed by optical and differential scanning calorimetry studies.     

Calorimetric study of phase transitions in nanocomposites of quantum dots and a liquid crystal

The complex specific heat is measured over a wide temperature range for the liquid crystal (LC) 4-cyano-4-octylbiphenyl (8CB) and cadmium sulfate quantum dots (QDs) composites as a function of QD concentration. The thermal scans were performed under near-equilibrium conditions for all samples having QDs weight percent (φ_w) from 0 to 3wt% over a wide range of temperature well above and below the two transitions in pure 8CB. Isotropic (I) to nematic (N) and nematic to smectic-A (SmA) phase transitions evolve in character and their transition temperatures offset by (～2.3 to 2.6 K) lower for all composite samples as compared to that in pure 8CB. The enthalpy change associated with I–N phase transitions shows slightly different behavior on heating and cooling and it also shows crossover behavior at lower and higher QD content. The enthalpy change associated with N–SmA phase transitions is independent of QD loading and thermal treatment. Given the homogeneous and random distribution of QD in these nanocomposites, we interpret that these results as arising that the nematic phase imposes self-assembly on QDs to form one-dimensional arrays leading to QDs and induces net local disordering effect in LC media.     

Effect of electric field on reentrance transition in a binary mixture of liquid crystals

Employing a phenomenological mean field theory, we analyze the effect of an electric field on the N ? SmA phase transition for pure liquid crystal and on the reentrant nematic phase in a binary mixture of liquid crystals exhibiting the phase sequence I ? N ? SmA ? N_R on cooling. The basic idea of the work is to explain the phase transition behavior of the system by assuming that certain Landau coefficients associated with the order parameters coupling terms of the free-energy density expansion are field dependent. These parameters play a crucial role and show a rapid variation at the SmA ? N_R transition as compared to the SmA ? N transition.     

Orientational diffusivities measured by Rayleigh scattering in a lyotropic calamitic nematic () liquid crystal phase: the backflow problem revisited

Using a light-beating technique we have measured the damping time of thermal fluctuations of the nematic director for the so called cylindrical or calamitic nematic (N_C) phase of the lyotropic system K-laurate/decanol/. By varying the scattering angle in suitable geometries, we have been able to estimate the orientational diffusivities associated to the three pure deformations of splay, twist and bend. A former measurement made in the disk-like N_D phase of the same system yielded a large deviation between the splay and twist diffusivities. The effect was then attributed to induced flows, or backflow, which could be responsible for the reduction of the splay viscosity. In fact, this is the analogous effect, for disks, to the one recognized since long time ago arriving for rod-like molecules in a classical nematic, though in this case it is associated with bend deformations. The analogy comes about thanks to the interchange of the role played by disks and cylinders for, respectively, splay and bend fluctuations.The measurements reported here provide a new test on the applicability of the backflow model to a nematic system composed of micelles, that is, aggregates made of amphiphilic (surfactant) molecules, in its cylindrical-like variant, i.e. the N_C phase. In addition, the comparative study made here with the previous results existing in the literature for the N_D phase, allows us to conjecture on structural issues concerning lyotropic nematics. Received: 29 April 1998 / Revised: 19 August 1998 / Accepted: 31 August 1998     

Raman studies on nanocomposite silicon carbonitride thin film deposited by r.f. magnetron sputtering at different substrate temperatures

Raman studies of nanocomposite SiCN thin film by sputtering showed that with increase of substrate temperature from room temperature to 500 °C, a transition from mostly sp² graphitic phase to sp³ carbon took place, which was observed from the variation of I_D/I_G ratio and the peak shifts. This process resulted in the growth of C₃N₄ and Si₃N₄ crystallites in the amorphous matrix, which led to increase in hardness (H) and modulus (E) obtained through nanoindentation. However, at a higher temperature of 600 °C, again an increase of sp² C concentration in the film was observed but the H and E values showed a decrease due to increased growth of the graphitic carbon phase. The whole process got reflected in a modified four‐stage Ferrari–Robertson model of Raman spectroscopy. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Capacitance-voltage behaviour inp-type ɛ-GaSe single crystal ∥c at different temperatures

Summary  Capacitance-voltage measurements have been carried out onp-type ɛ-GaSe single crystal ∥c in the temperature range 300 to 360 K, with applied voltages of -1, 0 and +1 V. TheC-V measurements in this temperature range have shown a shift in capacitanceC and conductanceG to the higher values with an increase in temperature. The depletion layer widthW, the Debye length L_D and the doping densityN _α have been worked out and plots ofN _α vs. W have shown a decrease inW with an increase in temperature. The plots of L_D vs. N _α vary as 1/N_α^1/2, which gives N_αL_D ⋍ 3.3 × 10¹¹ charges/m² for doping density of 10¹⁶m⁻³. The values ofG at different temperatures have been used to obtain the activation energies, which are found to be ΔE ⋍ 0.11 eV for -1 and +1 V applied voltages, and ΔE ⋍ 0.06 eV for zero volt. The authors of this paper have agreed to not receive the proofs for correction.     

Character of the N D -D h (0, d) phase transition in diskotic liquid crystals

The first experimental data on the orientational ordering of a diskotic reentrant nematic N _D are presented. The data show that the phase transition N _D -D _h (0, d) is a strong first-order transition with a large jump ΔS≃0.2 in the orientational order parameter S of the molecules. This indicates an anomalously strong coupling between the columnar and orientational ordering of the molecules and explains the absence of fluctuational divergence of the elastic moduli K ₁₁ and K ₂₂ in the nematic phase near this transition. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 63, No. 1, 29–32 (10 January 1996)     

Free energy of semiflexible polymers and structure of interfaces

The free energy of semiflexible polymers is calculated as a functional of the compositional scalar order parameter and the orientational order parameter of second-rank tensor S_ij on the basis of a microscopic model of wormlike chains with variable segment lengths. We use a density functional theory and a gradient expansion to evaluate the entropic part of the free energy, which is given in a power series of .The interaction term of the free energy is derived with a random phase approximation. For the rigid rod limit, the nematic-isotropic transition point is given by , N and w being the degree of polymerization and the anisotropic interaction parameter, respectively, and the degree of ordering at the transition point is 0.33448. We also find that the contour length of polymer chains becomes larger in a nematic phase than in an isotropic phase. Interface profiles are obtained numerically for some typical cases. In the neighborhood of isotropic-isotropic interfaces, polymer chains tend to align parallel to the interface on the polymer-rich side and perpendicular on the poor side. When an isotropic region and a nematic region coexist, orientational order parallel to the interface is preferred in the nematic region. Received: 28 May 1998 / Revised: 12 August 1998 / Accepted: 8 September 1998     

Spectral features of polarized light absorption and anisotropy of a local field in the D ho discotic

The polarized IR absorption spectra of monodomain planar-oriented films of a discotic liquid crystal D _ho are obtained for the first time. The spectral effects induced by the resonance dipole-dipole interaction of molecules, which have been predicted earlier, were observed. It was found that molecular excitations in isotropic and liquid-crystal phases are mixed due to local-filed effects and this mixing affects the relative intensity and dichroism of the absorption bands. New methods were suggested for measuring the local-field parameters in the D _ho phase from intensities and positions of the polarized absorption bands taking into account the mixing of molecular excitations. The two-dimensional crystal lattice of molecular columns was shown to reduce the local-field anisotropy of this phase.     

The ideal polymer chain near planar hard wall beyond the Dirichlet boundary conditions

We present a new ab initio approach to describe the statistical behavior of long ideal polymer chains near a plane hard wall. Forbidding the solid half-space to the polymer explicitly (by the use of Mayer functions) without any other requirement, we derive and solve an exact integral equation for the partition function G _D(r,r′, N) of the ideal chain consisting of N bonds with the ends fixed at the points r and r′ . The expression for G(r,r′, s) is found to be the sum of the commonly accepted Dirichlet result G _D(r,r′, N) = G ₀(r,r′, N) - G ₀(r,r”, N) , where r” is the mirror image of r′ , and a correction. Even though the correction is small for long chains, it provides a non-zero value of the monomer density at the very wall for finite chains, which is consistent with the pressure balance through the depletion layer (so-called wall or contact theorem). A significant correction to the density profile (of magnitude 1/is obtained away from the wall within one coil radius. Implications of the presented approach for other polymer-colloid problems are discussed.     

The ground state rotational constants of NNO

We report new measurements of the 5 ← 4 through 9 ← 8 lines in the pure rotational spectrum of nitrous oxide, ¹⁵N¹⁵N¹⁶O, and measurements at room temperature and at an elevated temperature of the 10⁰0-00⁰0 and 02⁰-00⁰0 bands of that molecule. The new data together with data for 10 other vibration-rotational transitions which previously have been reported enable us to determine the ground state constants. Using the newly determined values of B₀₀₀, D₀₀₀, and H₀₀₀, we have determined the band origins and the upper state constant differences B - B₀₀₀, D - D₀₀₀, and H - H₀₀₀ of 25 vibration-rotational bands whose lower level is the ground vibrational state.     

Bloch-Ising phase transition in spin solitons

Heisenberg spin chains with ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor coupling and an easy axis of magnetisation are considered in the classical limit. The critical ratioa _c between the anisotropy coefficient and the exchange integral for which the 180°-Blochtype soliton undergoes a phase transition to an Ising-type soliton is calculated by an exact analytical algorithm. For chains including 2N=4,6,8,... spins, one finds a sequencea _c (2N) which converges rapidly to the valuea _c()=2/3 (e.g.a _c (12)=0.66664) marking the phase transition from a Bloch- to an Ising-structure of the soliton in an infinite chain.Dedicated to Professor Harry Thomas on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

Correlation between the Soret coefficient and the static structure factor in a polymer blend

Mutual mass diffusion and thermal diffusion has been investigated in poly(dimethylsiloxane)/ poly(ethylmethylsiloxane) (PDMS/PEMS) polymer blends of equal weight fractions. Molar masses ranged from below 1 to over 20 kg/mol. Both the mutual mass (D) and the thermal diffusion (D_T) coefficient contain a thermally activated factor with an activation temperature of 1415 K. The molar mass dependence of D_T is due to an end-group effect of the local friction coefficient. The thermal diffusion coefficient in the limit of long chains and infinite temperature is D_T^0, = - 1.69×10^-7cm²(sK)^-1. The Soret coefficient S_T of blends far enough away from a critical point is proportional to the static structure factor S(q = 0).