Rheological properties of a reentrant nematic liquid crystal

Abstract

We report experimental studies on small angle light scattering (SALS), and rheodielectric and electrorheological properties of a binary mixture of octyloxy cyanobiphenyl and hexyloxy cyanobiphenyl liquid crystals. The mixture exhibits nematic (N) to smectic-A (SmA) phase transitions, and then again to a reentrant nematic (N(R)) phase transition. Rapid shear thinning in the quenched samples in the low shear rate region in the N and SmA phases observed from SALS experiments is attributed to the realignment of the director within the domains. The domains are elongated along the shear direction at higher shear rates. The temperature variation of the effective viscosity and static dielectric constant reveals the changes in the director orientation across N-SmA-N(R) phase transitions. At a steady shear rate the effective viscosity increases with the electric field in all the phases and saturates at much higher fields. It also exhibits two anomalous peaks across N-SmA-N(R) phase transitions beyond a particular field. The shear modulus of the SmA phase in an intermediate field is significantly larger than that measured at both low and high fields. This enhanced viscoelasticity of the SmA phase is argued to originate from the increased dislocation density.