Long Range Particle Transport in Liquid Crystal-alkane Mixtures

摘要

Microscopic tracking of silica tracer particles suspended in mixtures of a nematogen (5CB) and small amounts of alkane reveals that during an isotropic-nematic phase transition induced by slow cooling particle transport is dominated by long-range interaction with the isotropic-nematic interface for the most part of phase transition. According to the phase diagram of liquid crystal-alkane mixtures, this long-range interaction was attributed to hydrodynamic (advection) or thermodynamic (local concentration gradients) effects of alkane redistribution from the nematic into the isotropic domains during phase transformation.