Measurements of the specific heat and the static dielectric permittivity of heptyloxycyanobiphenyl (7OCB) confined to the 0.2 microm diameter parallel cylindrical pores of Anopore membranes in the isotropic phase and nematic mesophase, are presented. A comparison between the bulk and the confined 7OCB in treated and untreated pore wall surfaces using a chemical surfactant (HTBA) is performed. Both the treated and untreated membrane confinements seem to affect the nematic-to-isotropic phase transition by a downshift in transition temperature and some rounding at the specific-heat maximum, in a way similar to that which was earlier published for other liquid crystals confined in the same geometry. The static dielectric measurements clearly point out that untreated membrane confinement is axial, with the nematic director aligned parallel to the pore axis being homeotropic bulklike, i.e., with the nematic director aligned perpendicular to the electrode cell surfaces. After chemical surfactant treatment, the nematic director is constrained in a radial alignment being perpendicular to the pore walls. The dielectric measurements are revealed to be specially sensible to analyze the surface-induced nematic order due to the pore wall. The tricritical nature of the nematic-to-isotropic phase transition in bulk 7OCB as well as in treated and untreated Anopore confined geometries is discussed through both the specific heat and the static dielectric data.

The anisotropy of the intermolecular interactions in the low‐temperature ordered phases of three chemically and structurally related compounds [neopentylglycol, (CH3)2C(CH2OH)2, pivalic acid, (CH3)3C(COOH), and neopentylalcohol, (CH3)3C(CH2OH)], all of which display an orientationally disordered high‐temperature phase, has been shown by means of the isobaric thermal‐expansion tensor. The variation of the directions of the principal components of the thermal‐expansion tensor as a function of temperature, as well as the variation of its principal coefficients, is evidence of the large differences in the intermolecular interactions for each compound; or, more precisely, between the strong intermolecular hydrogen bonds and the weak van der Waals interactions. In addition, the differences in the hydrogen‐bonding schemes expected a priori from the molecular structures of the studied compounds have been enhanced. Finally, the volume expansivity as well as the packing coefficient have been analysed in the orientationally disordered high‐temperature phase of each of the three compounds.

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