Isotropic-to-nematic phase transition of liquid crystals confined in nanoemulsion droplets

We fabricated liquid crystalline nanoemulsions (LCNEs) by introducing low molecular weight liquid crystals (LMWLCs) into the core of nanoemulsions, and investigated the phase transition behavior of LMWLCs in the core part with the various weight ratios of LMWLCs to surfactants. The polarized dynamic light scattering measurement was performed to estimate the radii of LCNEs, and it is found that their radii can be controlled by the weight ratio of LMLCs to surfactant polymers. In the depolarized light scattering, it was revealed that the order of the isotropic-nematic phase transition behavior changes from the first order to biased second order with decreasing radius of LCNEs because of the three-dimensional confinement effect surrounded by an anchoring surface. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2015