High-resolution adiabatic scanning calorimetry and differential scanning calorimetry have been employed to study the thermal behavior of an organo-siloxane tetrapode reported to exhibit a biaxial nematic phase. No signature of the uniaxial to biaxial nematic phase transition could be retraced in sequential heating and cooling runs under different scanning rates, within the experimental resolution. The results obtained reveal that an extremely small heat should be involved in the uniaxial to biaxial nematic phase transition. The isotropic to uniaxial nematic transition at 318+/-0.01 K is very stable, and it is weakly first order with a rather small latent heat of 0.20+/-0.02 J/g .
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.78.011708 | DOI Listing |
J Chem Phys
December 2024
Department of Applied Physics, University of Granada, Avenida Fuente Nueva s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain.
As the temperature decreases, rigid anisotropic molecules that usually incorporate polar groups, aromatic rings or multiple bonds, orient along a common direction, eventually forming liquid-crystalline phases under specific thermodynamic conditions. This study explores the phase behavior and dynamics of board-shaped mesogens with a 1,4,5,8-tetraphenyl-anthraquinone core and four lateral arms forming an oligo(phenyleneethynylene) scaffold. These molecules are promising candidates for forming the elusive biaxial nematic phase.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhys Rev E
October 2024
Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics, P.O. Box 49, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary.
Nat Commun
November 2024
Department of Physics and Chemical Physics Program, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA.
Biaxial nematic liquid crystals are fascinating systems sometimes referred to as the Higgs boson of soft matter because of experimental observation challenges. Here we describe unexpected states of matter that feature biaxial orientational order of colloidal supercritical fluids and gases formed by sparse rodlike particles. Colloidal rods with perpendicular surface boundary conditions exhibit a strong biaxial symmetry breaking when doped into conventional chiral nematic fluids.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSmall
November 2024
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, 80217, USA.
Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) exhibit unique mechanical properties of soft elasticity and reversible shape-changing behaviors, and so serve as potentially transformative materials for various protective and actuation applications. This study contributes to filling a critical knowledge gap in the field by investigating the microscale mesogen organization of nematic LCEs with diverse macroscopic deformation. A polarized Fourier transform infrared light spectroscopy (FTIR) tester is utilized to examine the mesogen organizations, including both the nematic director and mesogen order parameter.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoft Matter
July 2024
Institute of Physics, University of Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Str. 3, 79104 Freiburg, Germany.
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