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Concept
Mesophase
Summary
In chemistry and chemical physics, a mesophase is a state of matter intermediate between solid and liquid. Gelatin is a common example of a partially ordered structure in a mesophase. Further, biological structures such as the lipid bilayers of cell membranes are examples of mesophases.
Georges Friedel (1922) called attention to the "mesomorphic states of matter" in his scientific assessment of observations of the so-called liquid crystals. Conventionally a crystal is solid, and crystallization converts liquid to solid. The oxymoron of the liquid crystal is resolved through the notion of mesophases. The observations noted an optic axis persisting in materials that had been melted and had begun to flow. The term liquid crystal persists as a colloquialism, but use of the term was criticized in 1993: In The Physics of Liquid Crystals the mesophases are introduced from the beginning:
certain organic materials do not show a single transition from solid to liquid, but rather a cascade of transitions involving new phases. The mechanical properties and the symmetry properties of these phases are intermediate between those of a liquid and those of a crystal. For this reason they have often been called liquid crystals. A more proper name is ‘mesomorphic phases’ (mesomorphic: intermediate form)
Further, "The classification of mesophases (first clearly set out by G. Friedel in 1922) is essentially based on symmetry."
Molecules that demonstrate mesophases are called mesogens.
In technology, molecules in which the optic axis is subject to manipulation during a mesophase have become commercial products as they can be used to manufacture display devices, known as liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). The susceptibility of the optical axis, called a director, to an electric or magnetic field produces the potential for an optical switch that obscures light or lets it pass. Methods used include the Freedericksz transition, the twisted nematic field effect and the in-plane switching effect.
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