Thermally Induced Isotropic-Nematic Phase Separation in Mixtures of Low-Molecular Weight and Polymer Liquid Crystals

Abstract

Using a polarizing optical microscope, kinetics of the thermally induced phase separation in the mixtures of a nematic low-molecular weight (LMW) liquid crystal (LC) and a LC polymer was examined. As a LC polymer, either a nematic side-chain polymer (P1) or a smectic main-chainpolymer (P2) was chosen. Depending on structure of the LC polymer (P1 or P2), kinetics of the LMW LC phase growth was analytically described either by the universal law for the cluster growth or by the Avrami equation, respectively.

Keywords:

• Kinetics of the ordered phase growth
• Phase separation
• Polymer-dispersed liquid crystals
• Statistical size distribution