Modelling of the phase transition of nanoscale confined liquid crystal

Abstract

By dividing the bulk melting entropy, a simple thermodynamic model without any adjustable parameter for the size-dependent melting transition temperature has been extended to interpret the melting and freezing transitions of liquid crystals (LCs) confined in nanopores. The results show that as the size of the nanopore decreases, the melting, clearing and freezing transition temperatures of LCs drop. The transition temperatures directly depend on the density of hydrogen bond at the interface between inner pore wall and LC molecules. The model predictions agree well with the corresponding experimental results of LCs p-azoxyanisole and 4-pentyl-4′-cyanobiphenyl confined in nanopores.

Keywords:

• nanostructure
• phase transition
• thermodynamic properties
• liquid crystal

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the supports by National Key Basic Research and Development Program (Grant No. 2010CB631001).