Liquid crystal magnetic properties

Modem scaling theory is a quite powerful theoretical tool (applicable to liquid crystals, magnets, etc) that has been well established for several decades and has proven to be particularly useful for multiphase microemulsion systems (46). It describes not just interfacial tensions, but virtually any thermodynamic or physical property of a microemulsion system that is reasonably dose to a critical point. For example, the compositions of a microemulsion and its conjugate phase are described by equations of the following form ... 

T. Carlsson, F.M. Leslie and J.S. Laverty, Biaxial Nematic Liquid Crystals -Flow Properties and Evidence of Bistability in the Presence of Electric and Magnetic Fields, Mol. Cryst Liq. Cryst, 212, 189-196 (1992). 

Muller, K., Kothe, G., and Wassmer, K.-H. Dynamic Magnetic Resonance of Liquid crystal Polymers Molecular Organization and Macroscopic Properties. Vol. 95, pp. 1 — 56. 

Finally, the combination of dendrimers and organometallic entities as fundamental building blocks affords an opportunity to construct an infinite variety of organometallic starburst polymeric superstructures of nanoscopic, microscopic, and even macroscopic dimensions. These may represent a promising class of organometallic materials due to their specific properties, and potential applications as magnetic ceramic precursors, nonlinear optical materials, and liquid crystal devices in nanoscale technology. 

Liquid crystals have found widespread application in optical display devices as well as in detection of temperature uniformity and impurities. These properties are related to the orientational order of molecules in the temperature region between and the melting point. The possible applications of ferroelectric liquid crystals are promising. Superconductors (type II) can be used to create high magnetic fields at low power the ability of type I superconductors to trap magnetic flux within the domains of the normal material may also have applications. 

As its name suggests, a liquid crystal is a fluid (liquid) with some long-range order (crystal) and therefore has properties of both states mobility as a liquid, self-assembly, anisotropism (refractive index, electric permittivity, magnetic susceptibility, mechanical properties, depend on the direction in which they are measured) as a solid crystal. Therefore, the liquid crystalline phase is an intermediate phase between solid and liquid. In other words, macroscopically the liquid crystalline phase behaves as a liquid, but, microscopically, it resembles the solid phase. Sometimes it may be helpful to see it as an ordered liquid or a disordered solid. The liquid crystal behavior depends on the intermolecular forces, that is, if the latter are too strong or too weak the mesophase is lost. Driving forces for the formation of a mesophase are dipole-dipole, van der Waals interactions, 71—71 stacking and so on. 

Since the first synthesis of mesoporous materials MCM-41 at Mobile Coporation,1 most work carried out in this area has focused on the preparation, characterization and applications of silica-based compounds. Recently, the synthesis of metal oxide-based mesostructured materials has attracted research attention due to their catalytic, electric, magnetic and optical properties.2 5 Although metal sulfides have found widespread applications as semiconductors, electro-optical materials and catalysts, to just name a few, only a few attempts have been reported on the synthesis of metal sulfide-based mesostructured materials. Thus far, mesostructured tin sulfides have proven to be most synthetically accessible in aqueous solution at ambient temperatures.6-7 Physical property studies showed that such materials may have potential to be used as semiconducting liquid crystals in electro-optical displays and chemical sensing applications. In addition, mesostructured thiogermanates8-10 and zinc sulfide with textured mesoporosity after surfactant removal11 have been prepared under hydrothermal conditions. 

Polarized light is the must powerful tool for investigating liquid crystals, all of which exhibit characteristic optical properties. A smectic liquid crystal transmits light more slow ly perpendicular to the layers than parallel to them. Such substances are said to be optically positive. Nematic liquid crystals are also optically positive, bui their action is less definite than that of smectic liquid crystals. However, the application of a magnetic field to nematic liquid crystals lines up their molecules, changing their optical properties and even their viscosity. 

This review deals with LC polymers containing mesogenic groups in the side chains of macromolecules. Having no pretence to cover the abundant literature related to thermotropic LC polymers, it seemed reasonable to deal with the most important topics associated with synthesis of nematic, smectic and cholesteric liquid crystals, the peculiarities of their structure and properties, and to discuss structural-optical transformations induced in these systems by electric and magnetic fields. Some aspects of this topic are also discussed in the reviews by Rehage and Finkelmann 27), and Hardy 28). Here we shall pay relatively more attention to the results of Soviet researchers working in the field. 

One of the most specific and unique features of low-molecular liquid crystals is their ability for orientation in external fields — mechanical, electric and magnetic. It is this property that establishes wide capabilities for technical application of liquid crystals. Today electric and magnetic optics of liquid crystals are an independent and useful for practics branch of the physics of the condensed state of matter 42 43 ... 

Thus the ability of LC polymers to orient in electric and magnetic fields reveals promise for the investigation of the specific features of LC polymer structure, as well as for the study of the mechanism of orientation and structural rearrangement processes in low-molecular liquid crystals, where they are very fast and in some cases are even hard to measure. On the other hand, this provides a method to control the structure of a polymer and thus create new materials with interesting optical properties. 

Solvent can affect the electronic structure of the solute and, hence, its magnetic properties either directly (e.g. favouring more polar resonance forms) or indirectly through geometry changes. Furthermore, it can influence the dynamical behaviour of the molecule for example, viscous and/or oriented solvents (such as liquid crystals) can strongly damp the rotational and vibrational motions of the radical. Static aspects will be treated in the following, whereas the last aspect will be tackled in the section devoted to all the dynamical effects. 

---