1b12 The size effect of confinement on the phase transition of liquid crystals in the nano-micelle

Abstract

We investigated the size effect on the isotropic-nematic phase transition of the liquid crystal confined in the core of the nano-micelles. Various sizes of the liquid crystalline nano micelles can be prepared by changing the mixing ratio of low molecular weight thermotropic liquid crystals to surfactants which serve as the micellar shell. From temperature dependence of the depolarized dynamic light scattering intensity, it was found that the nematic-isotropic phase transition behavior changes from the weak first order to second order due to the 3 dimensional confinement(〜100nm).