Treatment of the Steric Model of Nematic Liquid Crystals Based on the Empirical Equation of State

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A treatment of the steric model of nematic liquid crystals based on the empirical equation of state is presented. The steric model of the nematic state assumes that the orientationally dependent molecular repulsive barrier potential is responsible for the isotropic-nematic phase transition. An examination of previous treatments of this model identifies one of the sources of computational difficulty as the need to calculate the form of the equation of state. A method is found which avoids this problem by use of an ansatz. The order parameter is found to be a function of a reduced temperature which depends on parameters which may be found by measuring the equation of state of the isotropic phase outside the transition region. The influence of short-range orientational order may be estimated in a more straightforward manner than possible in previous treatments. Theory and experiment are found to agree on two important aspects of this model.

This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit: