Structural Rheology of the Smectic Phase
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Updated: Feb 25, 2026

Combining Microfluidics and Microrheology to Determine Rheological Properties of Soft Matter during Repeated Phase Transitions
Published on: April 19, 2018
Shuji Fujii1,2, Shigeyuki Komura3, Chun-Yi David Lu4
1Department of Chemistry, Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka 940-2188, Japan. sfujii@mst.nagaokaut.ac.jp.
Abstract:
In this review article, we discuss the rheological properties of the thermotropic smectic liquid crystal 8CB with focal conic domains (FCDs) from the viewpoint of structural rheology. It is known that the unbinding of the dislocation loops in the smectic phase drives the smectic-nematic transition. Here we discuss how the unbinding of the dislocation loops affects the evolution of the FCD size, linear and nonlinear rheological behaviors of the smectic phase. By studying the FCD formation from the perpendicularly oriented smectic layers, we also argue that dislocations play a key role in the structural development in layered systems. Furthermore, similarities in the rheological behavior between the FCDs in the smectic phase and the onion structures in the lyotropic lamellar phase suggest that these systems share a common physical origin for the elasticity.
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