Thermotropic liquid crystals discotic mesogen mesophases

Substances that show a liquid crystalline phase, or mesophase, are called mesogens. Several thousands of compounds, both with low molecular mass and polymeric, are now known to form mesophases. They are mainly highly geometrically anisotropic in shape, rodlike or disclike (hence the terms calamitic and discotic liquid crystals), or they are anisotropic in solubility properties, like amphiphilic molecules and, depending on their detailed molecular structure, they can exhibit one or more mesophases between the crystalline solid and the isotropic liquid. Transitions to these intermediate states may be induced by purely thermal processes (thermotropic liquid crystals) or by the action of solvents (lyotropic liquid crystals). Each of these two categories can be further divided according to the structure of the mesophases and/or molecules Scheme 1 shows the classification of thermotropic mesophases. 

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