Thermodynamics of Mesophase Transitions from Calorimetric Measurements

Abstract

The increasing amount of research on mesophases (liquid crystals), the availability of differential scanning calorimetry for rapid, quantitative thermodynamic evaluation, and the availability of compounds in a number of homologous series of compounds have led to studies that attempt to interpret the nature of mesophase transitions. This paper collects and reviews data for two homologous series and provides the general conclusions which can be drawn from the therodynamics of mesophase formation.