Frank phase transitions

The effects of pressure on the phase transition of liquid water to ice (and within the ice phase itself) are complicated by the formation of several pressure-dependent ice polymorphs (Chaplin, 2004 Franks, 1984, 2000 Kalichevsky et al., 1995 Ludwig, 2001). Thirteen crystalline forms of ice have been reported to date Ih (hexagonal or normal or regular ice), Ic (cubic... 

As for theoretical research on the chiral symmetry breaking, Frank was the first to show that a linear autocatalysis with an antagonistic nonlinear chemical reaction can lead to homochirality [16]. His formulation with rate equations corresponds to the mean-field analysis of the phase transition in a nonequilibrium situation [17], and other variants have been proposed [6, 18-23]. All these analyses have been carried out only for open systems where... 

Suzuki, T. Franks, F. Solid-liquid phase transitions and amorphous states in ternary sucrose-glycine-water systems. J. Chem. Soc., Faraday Trans. 1993, 89, 3283-3288. 

Brout s book assumes a substantial knowledge of statistical and quantum mechanics and there is little description of experimentally observed phase-transitions. The work is frankly biased and presents the... 

The literature on the molecular theory of liquid crystals is enormous and in this chapter we have been able to cover only a small part of it. We have mainly been interested in the models for the nematic-isotropic, nematic-smectic A and smectic A-smectic C phase transitions. The existing theory includes also extensive calculations of the various parameters of the liquid crystal phases Frank elastic constants, dielectric susceptibility, viscosity, flexoelectric coefficients and so... 

There are other reports on the study of pretransitional dynamics in polymeric and lyotropic nematics. Quantitative measurements of ratios of Frank elastic constants and Leslie viscosities in the pretransitional range of poly-y-benzyl-glutamate polymeric nematic are reported by Taratuta et al. [85]. McClymer and Keyes [86-88] report light scattering studies of pretransitional dynamics of potassium laurate-decanol-D20 system. An interesting study of a magnetic-field induced I N phase transition in a colloidal suspension is reported by Tang and Fraden [89]. 

Polymers and liquid ciystals are important materials for various research fields. If the two substances are mixed, novel materials which combine the advantageous properties of both may be formed. 1 began to think about this around 1994. Already at that time, this mixed system had attracted attention as an electro-optical material, but from the perspective of basic physical properties, the center of the liquid crystal research up to that point was the phase transition and Uquid crystal stracture of novel low molecular weight liquid crystals. The physics of liquid crystals was based on the Onsager theory, the Maier-Saupe theory, and the elastic theory by Frank. However, the theoretical study of a liquid crystal mixed with other substances had not yet been developed. So, 1 began to think to build theories of phase separations and phase transitions in mixtures of liquid crystals and other substances. Our first paper on the theory of phase separations in the mixture of a polymer and a liquid crystal was published in 1996 [41]. 1 found at a later date that a paper on the same topic by Prof. Kyu of Akron University had been presented already in 1995 [42]. However, there was a difference between the two theories. Kyu s theory has dealt with low molecular weight liquid crystals in an attractive model, whereas our model considered both attractive and repulsive interactions between rodlike liquid crystal molecules and can handle also long rodlike molecules. After that, I had a variety of discussions with Kyu and it was a valuable experience for my research. 

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