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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Crossover in the wetting behavior at surfactant-laden liquid-crystal-water interfaces: experiment and theory
Erfan Kadivar1, Christian Bahr, Holger Stark
1Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Bunsenstr. 10, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany.
Abstract:
The behavior of a nematic liquid crystal at a surfactant-laden interface to an aqueous phase is studied under the condition of homeotropic anchoring. It is shown that with decreasing surfactant concentration the system shifts from surface-enhanced to surface-decreased order, i.e., the behavior changes from complete nematic wetting when the nematic-isotropic phase transition is approached from above to a different wetting behavior below the transition, characterized by a considerably decreased Maier-Saupe order parameter at the interface. The experimental behavior is analyzed within the framework of the Landau-de Gennes theory supplemented by a surface free energy, in which the wetting behavior is controlled by the magnitude of the anchoring strength and the preferred surface order parameter in comparison to the bulk order parameter. The theoretical modeling is able to account for all experimental observations.
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