| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/L98251/01 |
| Title: |
PHASE TRANSITIONS IN CONFINED GEOMETRIES |
| Principal Investigator: |
Miles, Professor MJ |
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| Department: |
Physics |
| Organisation: |
University of Bristol |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 November 1998 |
Ends: |
31 March 2002 |
Value (£): |
190,097
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Complex fluids & soft solids |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| No relevance to Underpinning Sectors |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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The effect of confined geometries on phase transitions (1st and 2nd order) will be studied for liquid crystals in both experimental investigations and computer simulations.Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (STM) provides a novel method of following these transitions. Thestructure and transition temperatures of an adsorbed monolayer on graphite (HOPG) in contact withbulk liquid crystal have been shown by STM to be closely related to the bulk liquid-crystal phase. The effect of layer thickness on the transition temperature will be followed by STM. Lateral confinement will also be introduced using shallow etched pits in the graphite surface, and the resulting and the transition temperatures will be determined.For confinement involving less than 500 molecules, full atomistic molecular simulations will be performed in order to complement the experiments by studying the evolution of structural correlations between molecules on shorter time scales and examining the nature of the phase transitions in more detail.Simpler models whose parameters can be adjusted to represent the molecule faithfully, will allow many thousands of molecules to be studied over tens of nanoseconds. This will allow us to study the nucleation, layering and phase transition phenomena in great detail.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.bris.ac.uk |