Vapor pressure and density of thermotropic liquid crystals: MBBA, 5CB, and novel fluorinated mesogens

The vapor pressures and densities of six thermotropic liquid crystal-forming molecules (mesogens) have been determined experimentally as functions of temperature. The ubiquitous mesogenic compounds n-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-4-butylaniline (MBBA) and 4′-cyano-4-n- pentylbiphenyl (5CB), which both exhibit room-temperature nematic phases, are examined in this study, as are a number of trifluorinated bicyclohexyl and cyclohexylbiphenyl derivatives which find modern use in display applications. Although thermotropic mesogens are of prime importance in modern optoelectronic technologies, there is a scarcity of reliable saturation pressure data for such systems. An apparatus suitable for measurements of vapor pressures between 0.1 and 1333 Pa in the temperature range 298-523 K has been constructed. The adequacy of the apparatus has been verified by measurements on n-hexadecane at temperatures between 304 and 372 K, corresponding to vapor pressures between 0.4 and approximately 100 Pa. To our knowledge, our measurements represent the first reliable data for the saturation pressure of the fluid phase of these types of thermotropic compounds; we show that existing data for MBBA is thermodynamically inconsistent. The densities of the fluid phases of these compounds are also measured by means of a glass pycnometer at temperatures between 293 and 368 K.