Induced Reentrant Smectic-A Phase in Binary Mixtures of Liquid Crystals

Abstract

We report the results of our studies on the optical and thermal properties of the mixture of cholesteryl chloride (ChCl) and sodium dodecyl sulphate/water (SDS/water), which exhibits very interesting liquid crystalline mesophases, such as cholesteric (N∗) phase and induced reentrant smectic-A phase, sequentially when the specimen is cooled from its isotropic liquid phase. Different liquid crystalline phases observed in the mixture were studied using DSC, X-ray, and optical microscopic techniques. The pitch of the cholesteric phase and the temperature variation of optical anisotropy have also been discussed.