Associated Liquid Crystals

A tiny TFT is placed at each intersection of the gate and data electrode buses. Its drain and source electrodes are connected to the data electrode bus and the pixel electrode, respectively. The TFT gate electrode is connected to the gate electrode bus. Thus, each TFT is used to control the optical characteristics of the associated liquid crystal pixel of the matrix. 

This method is used to locate phase transitions via measurements of the endothennic enthalpy of phase transition. Details of the teclmique are provided elsewhere [25, 58]. Typically, the enthalpy change associated with transitions between liquid crystal phases or from a liquid crystal phase to the isotropic phase is much smaller than the melting enthalpy. Nevertheless, it is possible to locate such transitions with a commercial DSC, since typical enthalpies are... 

Liquid crystals represent a state of matter with physical properties normally associated with both soHds and Hquids. Liquid crystals are fluid in that the molecules are free to diffuse about, endowing the substance with the flow properties of a fluid. As the molecules diffuse, however, a small degree of long-range orientational and sometimes positional order is maintained, causing the substance to be anisotropic as is typical of soflds. Therefore, Hquid crystals are anisotropic fluids and thus a fourth phase of matter. There are many Hquid crystal phases, each exhibiting different forms of orientational and positional order, but in most cases these phases are thermodynamically stable for temperature ranges between the soHd and isotropic Hquid phases. Liquid crystallinity is also referred to as mesomorphism. 

The field of composite liquids has not received much attention outside the industries associated with specific liquid products (e.g., the petroleum industiy). In areas such as lubrication, the United States has clear technological leadership. The situation is less clear for liquid crystals and adhesives, where there is greater competition from Europe and Japan. 

This article reviews progress in the field of atomistic simulation of liquid crystal systems. The first part of the article provides an introduction to molecular force fields and the main simulation methods commonly used for liquid crystal systems molecular mechanics, Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics. The usefulness of these three techniques is highlighted and some of the problems associated with the use of these methods for modelling liquid crystals are discussed. The main section of the article reviews some of the recent science that has arisen out of the use of these modelling techniques. The importance of the nematic mean field and its influence on molecular structure is discussed. The preferred ordering of liquid crystal molecules at surfaces is examined, along with the results from simulation studies of bilayers and bulk liquid crystal phases. The article also discusses some of the limitations of current work and points to likely developments over the next few years. 

Liquid crystal behavior is a genuine supramolecular phenomenon based on the existence of extended weak interactions (dipole-dipole, dispersion forces, hydrogen bonding) between molecules. For the former two to be important enough, it is usually necessary for the molecules to have anisotropic shapes, able to pack efficiently so that these weak interactions can accumulate and co-operate, so as to keep the molecules associated in a preferred orientation, but free enough to move and slide, as they are not connected by rigid bonds. 

The role of various surfactant association structures such as micelles and lyotropic liquid crystals (372), adsorption-desorption kinetics at liquid-gas interfaces (373) and interfacial rheology (373) and capillary pressure (374) on foam lamellae stability has been studied. Microvisual studies in model porous media indicate... 

Cholesterol s presence in liposome membranes has the effect of decreasing or even abolishing (at high cholesterol concentrations) the phase transition from the gel state to the fluid or liquid crystal state that occurs with increasing temperature. It also can modulate the permeability and fluidity of the associated membrane—increasing both parameters at temperatures below the phase transition point and decreasing both above the phase transition temperature. Most liposomal recipes include cholesterol as an integral component in membrane construction. 

The unique properties of liquid crystals have also provided opportunity for study of novel nonlinear optical processes. An example involves the ability to modify the pitch of cholesteric liquid crystals. Because a pseudo-wave vector may be associated with the period of pitch, a number of interesting Umklapp type phasematching processes (processes in which wave vector conservation is relaxed to allow the vector addition to equal some combination of the material pseudo-wave vectors rather than zero) are possible in these pseudo-one-dimensional media. Shen and coworkers have investigated these employing optical third harmonic generation (5.) and four-wavemixing (6). 

Lyotropic liquid crystals differ from thermotropic liquid crystals. They are formed by mesogens which are not the moleeules themselves but their hydrates or solvates as well as associates of hydrated or solvated molecules. In the presenee of water or a mixture of water and an organie solvent as the most important solvents for drug molecules, the degree of hydration or solvation, respectively, depends on the amphiphilic properties of a drug moleeule. Hydration of the mostly rod-shaped molecule— and the same holds for solvation—results in different geometries, eone or cylinder [5] (Fig. 3). 

FIG. 3. Geometry of hydrated molecules cylinders associate to a lamellar liquid crystal, cones to a hexagonal and an inverse hexagonal. Adapted from The Physical Chemistry ofMembranes (Silver, B., ed.), Allen Unwin, Inc. Solomon Press, Winchester, MA, 1985. 

Drug molecules with amphiphilic character may form lyotropic mesophases, and amphiphilic excipients in drug formulations also form lyotropic liquid crystals. Especially surfactants, which are commonly used as emulsifiers in dermal formulations, associate to micelles after dissolution in a solvent. With increasing concentration of these micelles the probability of interaction between these micelles increases and thus the formation of liquid crystals. 

The carboxylic acids were combined with hexylamlne and water in order to study the association structures formed. The hexyl-amine was chosen because it did not by Itself form a liquid crystalline phase with water. Fig. 3A. Water dissolves in the amine to a maximum of 60% to form an isotropic solution. The liquid crystal is formed first at a certain octanoic acid amine ratio, approximately 0.1. The liquid crystalline phase forms a large region reaching to a weight fraction of 0.61 of the acid, corresponding to a 1 1 molar ratio of the two species. 

Fig. 15.4 Schematic ternary-phase diagram of an oU-water-surfactant microemulsion system consisting of various associated microstructures. A, normal miceUes or O/W microemulsions B, reverse micelles or W/O microemulsions C, concentrated microemulsion domain D, liquid-crystal or gel phase. Shaded areas represent multiphase regions.

Coefficients that define the energy dissipation associated with a rotation of the director in an incompressible, nematic liquid crystal. 

Motion of a liquid crystal associated with the rate of change of the director in the direction opposite to that of the action of an external field. 

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