Formation and kinetics of transient metastable states in mixtures under coupled phase ordering and chemical demixing

Abstract

We present theory and simulation of simultaneous chemical demixing and phase ordering in a polymer-liquid crystal mixture in conditions where isotropic- isotropic phase separation is metastable with respect to isotropic-nematic phase transition. It is found that mesophase formation proceeds by a transient metastable phase that surround the ordered phase, and whose lifetime is a function of the ratio of diffusional to orientational mobilities. It is shown that kinetic phase ordering in polymer-mesogen mixtures is analogous to kinetic crystallization in polymer solutions.

17 pages, 5 figures accepted for publication in EPL

Cited by in corpus (4)

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• Multiple interfaces in diffusional phase transitions in binary mesogen-non-mesogen mixtures undergoing metastable phase separations
• Dynamics of transient metastable states in mixtures under coupled phase ordering and chemical demixing
• Modeling Complex Liquid Crystals Mixtures: From Polymer Dispersed Mesophase to Nematic Nanocolloids