fig3

Figure 3. Liquid crystals and their mesophases. (A) Geometrical shapes of the building blocks of LCs that for different phases with temperature; rod-shaped, 4-cyano-4′-pentylbiphenyl (5CB); disc-shaped, benzene-hexa-n-alkanoate derivative; banana-shapes or bent-core, 1,3-phenylene bis(4-(4-ethoxyphenyl) diazenyl) benzoate. Reprinted from ref.^[65], with permission from John Wiley and Sons. (B) Nematic to isotropic phase transition in rod-shaped 5CB LC when viewed between crossed polarizers. Snapshots of the video posted on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl_YeOf8gJc). (C) Typical phase textures of LC samples prepared on untreated glass slides viewed between crossed polarizers using a polarizing optical microscope. Reprinted from ref.^[65] under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY license.