Interaction of Small Molecules with Liquid Crystals; A Spectroscopic Study.
Abstract
Infrared and Raman spectroscopy have been used to investigate the interaction of a variety of small molecules with liquid crystals. The systems studied include cholesteric, nematic, and smectic liquid crystals of both the thermotropic and lyotropic types. These results lead to an understanding of structure of liquid crystals and how this structure is perturbed by solutes. They also indicate that solutes may be used to aid in measuring order in liquid crystals. A useful application of these studies, a liquid crystal based fractionator for the detection and identification of a wide variety of molecules in the vapor phase, is presented. This device can be used as a gas chromatograph detector or, more suitably, as a detector/fractionator in a gas chromatograph-infrared spectrometer effluent on-the-fly analyzer. Here the cholesteric liquid crystal color change is used as the detector, and the infrared spectrum provides positive identification. This system can also be used to detect and identify minor components in an air stream. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 16, 1976
- Accession Number
- ADA029404
Entities
People
- Bernard J. Bulkin
Organizations
- Hunter College