Temperature and Pressure Study of 8S5

Abstract
We have studied the liquid crystal phase transitions of 4-n-pentylbenzenethio.4′-n-octyloxybenzoate (8S5) as a function of pressure and temperature. There were no pressure induced anomalies. We measured the latent heat at the N-1 transition (.5±.1 calories/gram) but were not able to observe any evidence of a latent heat for both the A-N and C-A transitions. We speculate that the continuous nature of these transitions may be linked to the flexibility of the polar part of 8S5.