Abstract
As a humble contribution to this special commemorative issue to Professor Alfred Saupe, we present an experimental study on the critical behaviour of the nematic-to-isotropic (N–I) and smectic A-to-nematic (SmA–N) phase transitions of the liquid crystal 4-nonyloxy-4′-cyanobiphenyl (9OCB). Measurements of the specific heat and the dielectric permittivity were performed for bulk 9OCB as well as for 9OCB confined to Anopore membranes, and the influence of the slight-restrictive confinement was analysed. The possibility of driving the weakly first-order SmA–N phase transition to second-order in nature by means of the confinement was confirmed.
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