Abstract
Liquid crystal phase is an emergent phase of biological systems. Experimental studies have shown that DNA oligomers exhibit lyotropic liquid crystal phases. Simple Landau free energy function is presented to describe the isotropic-nematic-columnar lyotropic phase sequence of DNA solutions and transitions between them. The order parameters necessary to describe these lyotropic liquid crystalline phase transitions are identified. General arguments are presented for the topology of the phase diagram in the vicinity of the isotropic-nematic-columnar triple point. Within this model the isotropic-nematic, isotropic-columnar and nematic-columnar lyotropic phase transitions are found to be always first order. The concentration and oligomers length dependent transition temperatures are calculated. Calculations based on this model agree qualitatively with experiments.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
