Reinitzer

Reinitzer F 1888 Beitrage zur kenntnis des cholesterins Monatsh. Chem. 9 421-41... 

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. 

Reinitzer, F. (1888) Beitrage zur Kenntniss des Cholesterins. Monatsheftefur Chemie, 9, 421-441. 

NEPR a a. .. Rubin and Macdougall 1988 Reinitz and Turekian 1989 Ben Othman and Allegre 1990... 

Duveen, Denis I. and E. Offenbacher. An alchemical correspondence in Germany under the Nazi regime. Long Island City (NY) Reinitz Soap Corp, 1951. 

Reinitzer discovered liquid crystallinity in 1888 the so-called fourth state of matter.4 Liquid crystalline molecules combine the properties of mobility of liquids and orientational order of crystals. This phenomenon results from the anisotropy in the molecules from which the liquid crystals are built. Different factors may govern this anisotropy, for example, the presence of polar and apolar parts in the molecule, the fact that it contains flexible and rigid parts, or often a combination of both. Liquid crystals may be thermotropic, being a state of matter in between the solid and the liquid phase, or they may be lyotropic, that is, ordering induced by the solvent. In the latter case the solvent usually solvates a certain part of the molecule while the other part of the molecule helps induce aggregation, leading to mesoscopic assemblies. The first thermotropic mesophase discovered was a chiral nematic or cholesteric phase (N )4 named after the fact that it was observed in a cholesterol derivative. In hindsight, one can conclude that this was not the simplest mesophase possible. In fact, this mesophase is chiral, since the molecules are ordered in... 

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... 

Reinitzer, F., Beitrage zur Kermtnis des Cholesterins, A/onali/ . Cftem., 9 412-441 (1888). Lehmann, O., Uber flieBende Kristalle, Z. Physikal Chem., 4 462-471 (1889). 

The history of liquid crystals started with the pioneer works of Reinitzer and Lehmann (the latter constructed a heating stage for his microscope) at the end of the nineteenth century. Reinitzer was studying cholesteryl benzoate and found that this compound has two different melting points and undergoes some unexpected color changes when it passes from one phase to another [1]. In fact, he was observing a chiral nematic liquid crystal. 

The following method was apparently devised by Reinitzer and was subsequently studied by Bunce and Finch. 

The existence of liquid crystals was first observed by Reinitzer [19] in 1888, but they were first classified and examined in a systematic way by Friedel [20] in 1922. Liquid crystals and their application to the formation of ordered thin films are discussed in Chapter 7. 

Mesophase materials are possible for all three classes of molecules. Biological mesophases were already discovered in the middle of the 19th Century. Reinitzer later described the special two-stage melting of cholesteryl benzoate. These materials were then named liquid crystals by Lehmann in 1904 5). Small molecule mesophase materials will be referred to from time to time in this review as reference materials. 

Reinitzer, F. Beitrage zur Kenntnis des Cholesterins , Monatsh. 9, 421, 1888. The term liquid crystals was first used by O. Lehmann in Fluessige Kristalle . Engelmann, Leipzig, 1904. See also H. Kelker, History of liquid crystals. Mol. Cryst. Liq, Cryst. 21, 1 (1973). For a history of the discovery and recognition of plastic crystals see J. Timmermanns, Plastic crystals, a historical review. J. Phys. Chem. Solids 18,1 (1961)... 

As can be seen in H, Kelkers l) excellent review on the history of liquid crystals, investigations on liquid crystalline polymers already exist before F. Reinitzer in 1888 gave the very first description of a low molar mass liquid crystal (1-l.c.). While, however, 1-l.c. s have become an extensive field of research and application during the past decades, these activities on l.c. polymers have come rather late. The research on l.c. polymers during the last years is mainly joined with activities in material science and tries to realize polymers with exceptional properties. These exceptional properties are expected because of the combination of the physical anisotropic behavior of l.c. and the specific properties of macromolecular material. 

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