Phase Transition and Optical Characterization of Mesophase Stability of Nematic and Columnar Biphasic Regions

Abstract

We report the results of our studies on the optical and thermal properties of binary mixture of two compounds viz., abietic acid and alizarin dye. The mixture shows a very interesting co-existent biphasic regions of nematic (N + I) and columnar smectic (C + I) phases, sequentially when the specimen is cooled from its isotropic phase respectively at different concentrations of given molecule. The temperature variations of optical anisotropy, optical textures and electrical conductivity have also been discussed. Aggregated molecular size has been confirmed by X-ray studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Binary mixture
• columnar phase
• chromonic system
• molecular aggregation
• optical anisotropy