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Abstract
In this adiabatic scanning calorimetry (ASC) study we investigated the liquid crystal 4-butyloxyphenyl-4′-decyloxybenzoate () with the emphasis on the nematic-to-smectic A (N-SmA) and the nematic-to-isotropic (N-I) phase transitions. Because of the high resolution ASC technique we were able to accurately determine the latent heat of the first order N-I transition. The N-SmA transition was found to be a continuous one within the experimental resolution and the value of the effective specific heat capacity critical exponent, α, was found to be 0.23±0.01, thus between the 3D XY and tricritical value.