Calorimetric study of an orientational transition in a nematic liquid crystal

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25800232
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Biological physics/Chemical physics/Soft matter physics
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: SASAKI Yuji 北海道大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 助教 (00649741)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 液晶 / 熱測定 / 界面

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The orientation of nematic liquid crystals is quite sensitive to the boundary condition. In this work, we study the thermal property of an orientational transition of a nematic liquid crystal observed by a fluorinated polymer surface. A high-sensitivity differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is used for the experiments. The obtained DSC data show a step-wise change of the heat flow curve at the transtition temperature. Although a relatively large thermal hysteresis is observed, it is also found that the latent heat associated with the transition is quite small.

Free Research Field

ソフトマター物理