Liquid crystal clearing temperature

Tm), -A- liquid crystal-to-liquid crystal transition temperature and clearing temperature (T ) on spacer... 

Typically, the length ofa simulation varies between 1 and 10 ns. Even though such a simulation requires approximately 10 -10 time steps, it is not a sufficiently long time to collect complete, direct statistics about solute translocation. Thus, special techniques, described below, must be used to calculate both the distribution of a solute in the bilayer and the membrane permeability to a solute. The temperature of the system is usually held at a value in the 300-350 K range. Two considerations motivate the choice of the temperature. First, in some studies e.g., on anesthetic solutes) it is desired to simulate physiological conditions. Second, since the membrane permeability depends sensitively on the lipid phase, it is usually required that the bilayer be clearly above the gel-to-liquid-crystal transition temperature. 

However, the main research result from those years was the discovery of the room-temperature single-electron phenomenon. In the 1990s, STM experiments on liquid crystal had shown a very weak staircase (Nejoh 1991) only one year later, the clear observations of the coulomb blockade and the coulomb staircase were demonstrated on gold nanoparticles (Shonenberger et al. 1992a) and the role of system symmetry on the appearance of these two phenomena was outlined (Shonenberger et al. 1992b). 

Liquid crystals were discovered by an Austrian biologist, Frederich Reinitzer, in 1888. Reinitzer found that cholesteryl benzoate, a biological chemical, melts to form a hazy liquid. At a higher temperature, the haziness disappears. This clear state is what we know now as a liquid crystal. 

Most solid materials produce isotropic liquids directly upon melting. However, in some cases one or more intermediate phases are formed (called mesophases), where the material retains some ordered structure but already shows the mobility characteristic of a liquid. These materials are liquid crystal (LCs)(or mesogens) of the thermotropic type, and can display several transitions between phases at different temperatures crystal-crystal transition (between solid phases), melting point (solid to first mesophase transition), mesophase-mesophase transition (when several mesophases exist), and clearing point (last mesophase to isotropic liquid transition) [1]. Often the transitions are observed both upon heating and on cooling (enantiotropic transitions), but sometimes they appear only upon cooling (monotropic transitions). 

Liquid crystals based on aliphatic isocyanides and aromatic alkynyls (compounds 16) show enantiotropic nematic phases between 110 and 160 °C. Important reductions in the transition temperatures, mainly in clearing points (<100 °C), areobtained when a branched octyl isocyanide is used. The nematic phase stability is also reduced and the complexes are thermally more stable than derivatives of aliphatic alkynes. Other structural variations such as the introduction of a lateral chlorine atom on one ring of the phenyl benzoate moiety or the use of a branched terminal alkyl chain produce a decrease of the transition temperatures enhancing the formation of enantiotropic nematic phases without decomposition. 

As can be seen from Fig. 6, liquid-liquid demixing clearly precedes crystallization in case Cl. Moreover, crystallization in this case occurs at a higher temperature than in cases C2 and C3. Apparently, the crystallization takes place in the dense disordered phase (which has a higher melting temperature than the more dilute solution Fig. 5). In case C2, the crystallization temperature is close to the expected critical point of liquid-liquid demixing, but higher than in case C3. This suggests that even pre-critical density fluctuations enhance the rate of crystal nucleation. 

Thermotropic cholesterics were officially discovered2 in 1888 by the Austrian botanist Friederich Reinitzer, while studying the melting of cholesterol esters cholesteryl benzoate first melted to give a cloudy liquid that, at higher temperature, turned into an ordinary clear liquid. The cloudy liquid (the mesophase) was a thermotropic cholesteric liquid crystal. These phases... 

Our understanding of lyotropic liquid crystals follows in a similar manner. The action of solvent on a crystalline substance disrupts the lattice structure and most compounds pass into solution. However, some compounds yield liquid crystal solutions that possess long-range ordering intermediate between solutions and crystal. The lyotropic liquid crystal can pass into the solution state by the addition of more solvent and/or heating to a higher temperature. Thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystals, both turbid in appearance, become clear when they pass itno the liquid and solution states, respectively. 

The dodecahydrate is efflorescent at room temperature in air. At 22° C. it becomes damp and the dampness increases as the temperature rises until finally the salt becomes completely liquid. A definite melting point is not exhibited.3 The liquid becomes clear at 56 2° C. and is then a true solution of the heptahydrate. When this is supercooled to about 40° C. and seeded with a crystal of the salt, crystals of the heptahydrate are deposited and the temperature rises to 56-2° C. A similar evolution of heat, but less marked, occurs at 22° C. The heptahydrate does not effloresce appreciably at room temperature in air. 

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