Experimental studies on the phase diagram and physical properties of mixture of calamitic and discotic nematic liquid crystals |
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Authors: | D. Venkata Sai Giorgio Mirri Igor Musevic |
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Affiliation: | 1. School of Physics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India;2. Soft Matter Laboratory, Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia |
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Abstract: | Physical studies on mixture of calamitic and discotic nematic liquid crystals are meagre although they are potential for optimising physical properties. Here, we report experimental studies on the phase diagram and physical properties of mixtures of ambient temperature discotic and calamitic nematic liquid crystals. A substantial decrease in several physical properties such as birefringence, dielectric anisotropy and elastic constants are observed with increasing wt% of discotic compound. On the other hand a large increase in the rotational viscosity is observed. Based on the experimental results a simple model of mutual orientation of the rod-like and disc-like molecules is proposed. |
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Keywords: | Calamitic and discotic liquid crystals birefringence dielectric viscoelastic properties |
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