Molecular dynamics simulations were conducted using the generalized replica exchange method (gREM) on the 4-cyano-4'-n-alkyl biphenyl (nCB) system with n = 5, 6, 7, and 8, which exhibits a nematic-isotropic (NI) phase transition. Sampling near the phase transition temperature in systems undergoing first-order phase transitions, such as the NI phase transition, is demanding due to the substantial energy gap between the two phases. To address this, gREM, specifically designed for first-order phase transitions, was utilized to enhance sampling near the NI phase transition temperature. Free-energy calculations based on the energy representation (ER) theory were employed to characterize the NI phase transition. ER evaluates the insertion free energy of the nCB molecule for both nematic and isotropic phases, revealing a change in the temperature dependence across the NI phase transition. Further decomposition into energetic and entropic terms quantitatively shows the balance between these contributions at the NI phase transition temperature.
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ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
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State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Luminescence from Molecular Aggregates, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, P. R. China.
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Faculty of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 Munich, Germany.
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March 2025
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March 2025
Institute for Decarbonization Materials, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
The efficient removal of CO from exhaust streams and even directly from air is necessary to forestall climate change, lending urgency to the search for new materials that can rapidly capture CO at high capacity. The recent discovery that diamine-appended metal-organic frameworks can exhibit cooperative CO uptake via the formation of ammonium carbamate chains begs the question of whether simple organic polyamine molecules could be designed to achieve a similar switch-like behavior with even higher separation capacities. Here, we present a solid molecular triamine, 1,3,5-tris(aminomethyl)benzene (TriH), that rapidly captures large quantities of CO upon exposure to humid air to form the porous, crystalline, ammonium carbamate network solid TriH(CO)·HO (TriHCO).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
March 2025
School of Physics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad 500046, India.
In emulsions of multicomponent fluids, the dispersed phase forms tiny droplets in the continuous phase. In situ control and manipulation to achieve diversity in emulsion droplets for emerging applications is challenging. In a liquid crystal-based emulsion, the surface anchoring of the molecules at the isotropic fluid-liquid crystal interface introduces elastic distortions that result in anisotropic interparticle interactions, similar to electrostatic interactions between multipoles, which also lends a naming analogy as elastic dipoles, quadrupoles, and higher.
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