Time Dependence of Impurity Diffusion in a Nematic Liquid Crystal

Abstract

In the optical method of mass transport in nematic liquid crystals, the diffusion time was employed as a variable experimental parameter. Within the time range where concentration gradient is large, we found that the average diffusion coefficient of the system to increase with time. This is due to an overall material flow coupled with Fickian diffusion at the vicinity of the solute-solvent boundary.