Surface tension and disjoining pressure of free-standing smectic films above the bulk smectic-A-isotropic transition temperature
- Institute of Molecular Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Smoluchowskiego 17, 60-179 Poznan (Poland)
We have carried out a numerical study of both the structural and thermodynamic properties of free-standing smectic films for the case of enhanced pair interaction in the bounding layers. Calculations, based upon the extended McMillan's mean-field theory with anisotropic forces, show that the layer-thinning transitions are characterized by abrupt drops to lower values, both for a disjoining pressure and a fluctuation-induced long-range interaction between the smectic film surfaces, and then continues to increase with a larger positive slope. Reasonable agreement between the theoretically predicted and the experimentally obtained data on the surface tension of the partially fluorinated 5-n-alkyl-2-(4-n-(perfluoroalkyl-metheleneoxy)phenyl) film has been obtained.
- OSTI ID:
- 22253390
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 140, Issue 12; Other Information: (c) 2014 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-9606
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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