화학공학소재연구정보센터
Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.112, No.45, 14198-14205, 2008
Thermodynamic Assessment of Smectic A-Nematic Tricritical Points through the Equal Gibbs Energy Analysis
A complete thermodynamic analysis on four two-component phase diagrams between liquid crystals belonging to the nCB and nOCB series of compounds, the so-called cyanobiphenyls, has been performed through the Oonk's equal Gibbs energy method. The binary systems dealt with in this paper show as a common feature the existence of a tricritical point at the SmA-to-N phase transition, all of which reported elsewhere. As a singular finding of the work proposed in this paper, the Oonk's method is extended in order to account for second-order phase transitions. Likewise, this extension allows performing calculations of the tricritical temperature.