About the Book
Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 131. Chapters: Azeotrope, Azeotrope (data), Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld sandpile, Bancroft point, Boiling, Boiling chip, Bubble point, Bumping (chemistry), Charge ordering, Coffee ring, Condensation, Congruent melting, Continuous cooling transformation, Critical dimension, Critical exponent, Critical opalescence, Critical points of the elements (data page), Critical point (thermodynamics), Critical radius, Cryobiology, Cryophorus, Cryoscopic constant, Crystallization, Crystallization of polymers, Curie temperature, Deposition (phase transition), Diffusionless transformation, Distillation, Ebullioscopic constant, Eutectic system, Evaporation, Ferromagnetism, Flash freezing, Fractional crystallization (chemistry), Freedericksz transition, Freezing-point depression, Glass transition, Heteroazeotrope, Higgs field, Higgs mechanism, Incongruent melting, Isothermal transformation diagram, Jamming (physics), Johari-Goldstein relaxation, Lambda transition, Latent internal energy, Lever rule, Liquidus, Liquid crystal, List of boiling and freezing information of solvents, Literature of phase boundaries, Melting-point depression, Melting point, Mesophase, Mpemba effect, Percolation theory, Phase boundary, Phase diagram, Photoinduced phase transitions, Polyamorphism, Pourbaix diagram, Recrystallization (chemistry), Saturation Dome, Schreinemaker's analysis, Simon-Glatzel equation, Slip melting point, Solidus (chemistry), Spinodal decomposition, Sublimation (phase transition), Sublimation apparatus, Superconductivity, Symplectite, Tricritical point, Triple point, Zeotropic mixture. Excerpt: Liquid crystals (LCs) are matter in a state that has properties between those of conventional liquid and those of solid crystal. For instance, an LC may flow like a liquid, but its molecules may be orientated in a crystal-like way. There are many different types of LC phases, which can be distinguished by their different optical properties (such as birefringence). When viewed under a microscope using a polarized light source, different liquid crystal phases will appear to have distinct textures. The contrasting areas in the textures correspond to domains where the LC molecules are oriented in different directions. Within a domain, however, the molecules are well ordered. LC materials may not always be in an LC phase (just as water may turn into ice or steam). Liquid crystals can be divided into thermotropic, lyotropic and metallotropic phases. Thermotropic and lyotropic LCs consist of organic molecules. Thermotropic LCs exhibit a phase transition into the LC phase as temperature is changed. Lyotropic LCs exhibit phase transitions as a function of both temperature and concentration of the LC molecules in a solvent (typically water). Metallotropic LCs are composed of both organic and inorganic molecules; their LC transition depends not only on temperature and concentration, but also on the inorganic-organic composition ratio. Examples of liquid crystals can be found both in the natural world and in technological applications. Most contemporary electronic displays use liquid crystals. Lyotropic liquid-crystalline phases are abundant in living systems. For example, many proteins and cell membranes are LCs. Other well-known LC examples are solutions of soap and various related detergents, as well as the tobacco mosaic virus. In 1888, Austrian botanical physiologist Friedrich Reinitzer, working at the Charles University in Prague, examined the physico-chemical properties of various derivatives of cholesterol which now belong to the class of materials known as cholesteric
