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Updated: Jul 13, 2026
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Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Orientational relaxation in a discotic liquid crystal
Dwaipayan Chakrabarti1, Biman Jana, Biman Bagchi
1Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
Summary
Molecular dynamics simulations reveal distinct orientational relaxation behaviors in discotic liquid crystals. Power law decay is observed near the isotropic-nematic transition but not the isotropic-columnar transition.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Computational Chemistry
Background:
- Discotic liquid crystals exhibit complex phase behaviors.
- Understanding orientational dynamics is crucial for their applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate orientational relaxation in discotic liquid crystals.
- Differentiate relaxation mechanisms across different phase transitions.
Main Methods:
- Molecular dynamics simulations.
- Analysis of orientational pair distribution functions (OPDFs).
Main Results:
- Power law decay in orientational relaxation observed near isotropic-nematic (I-N) transition.
- Absence of power law decay near isotropic-columnar (I-C) transition.
- Long-range correlations grow near I-N boundary, absent near I-C boundary.
Conclusions:
- The presence or absence of power law decay correlates with the nature of phase transitions.
- Orientational relaxation in the nematic phase resembles that of calamitic liquid crystals.
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