Uniaxial - biaxial lyotropic cholesteric phase transition of lyotropic liquid crystals

ABSTRACT

A Landau model is proposed to describe the uniaxial – biaxial lyotropic cholesteric phase transition of lyotropic liquid crystals (LLC). The model free energy is based on a mixture of rod-shaped and disc-shaped micelles. The possibility of the existence of two biaxial lyotropic cholesteric phases and two uniaxial lyotropic cholesteric phases of LLC is discussed. The phase transitions between two biaxial lyotropic cholesteric phases and two uniaxial lyotropic cholesteric phases are explored. Qualitative comparisons between theoretical predictions and recent experimental results are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Lyotropic liquid crystals
• cholesteric phase
• biaxial phase
• phase transition

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.