Isotropic and nematic liquid crystalline phases of adaptive rotaxanes

Abstract

We describe the thermodynamics of a solution of rotaxanes which can change their length from a short state of length L to a long state of length qL in response to their surrounding environment. We call these rotaxanes "adaptive." We show that such a system can exhibit both isotropic and nematic liquid crystalline phases. The system shows several interesting kinds of behaviour. First we predict that the fraction of short-length rotaxanes increases linearly with concentration and is a maximum at the critical concentration that marks the isotropic to nematic transition. Second, the critical concentration shows a minimum at a certain value of q. Our model suggests that the effect of adaptive length changes is most dramatic at small q and where the long state is slightly favoured.

Recent Advances in Conservation–Dissipation Formalism for Irreversible Processes

“…We introduce d ∈ R 3 as a 3-dimensional vector, to account for the preferred orientation and the average length [81] of rod-like molecules. In this way, the vectorial theory could possibly describe the fluids of mixtures of molecules with varied lengths [81][82][83].…”

Recent Advances in Conservation-Dissipation Formalism for Irreversible Processes

“…We introduce d ∈ R 3 as a 3-dimensional vector, to account for the preferred orientation and the average length [79] of rod-like molecules. In this way, the vectorial theory could possibly describe the fluids of mixtures of molecules with varied lengths [79][80][81].…”

Conservation-Dissipation Formalism for soft matter physics: II. Application to non-isothermal nematic liquid crystals

“…It was necessary to emphasize that, here we introduced d ∈ R 3 as a 3-dimensional vector, to account for both the preferred orientation and the average length 25 of rod-like molecules. In this way, the vectorial theory could be extended to the case of mixtures of molecules with varied lengths [25][26][27] .…”