Presidential Young Investigators Award: Thermodynamics and Transport Properties of Liquid-Crystalline Mixtures - Theory and Experiment

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Thermodynamics and transport properties of liquid-crystalline mixtures - Theory and Experiment Liquid crystals (LC), especially their mixtures, are used extensively in many technological applications, and in biological systems their presence is widespread. Despite their importance, an understanding of their thermodynamics and transport properties is very poor, especially at the microscopic level. In this research the PI will use statistical mechanical theories (both the composition-space DFT as well as the traditional configuration-space DFT), molecular simulation, and experiment to study the dynamics and thermodynamic behavior of LC substances in the presence of various types of solutes. These studies are designed to satisfy several goals, including: (1) to explore the limits of both types of DFT; (2) to produce a comprehensive set of experimental data on the behavior of LC mixtures; (3) to validate some model potentials through comparison with the experimental data; and (4) to provide a molecular-level understanding of the behavior of LC mixtures to a degree which cannot be achieved by any other means.