Lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLCs) represent a special class of lyotropic mesophases markedly different from conventional amphiphilic mesogens. Materials forming LCLCs are composed of plank-like molecules with a polyaromatic central core and hydrophilic ionic groups at the periphery. The individual molecules tend to assemble into rodlike aggregates that form the N phase once the concentration exceeds about 0.1M.
The LCLC materials show a tremendous potential for applications in optics as self-assembling polarizing and compensating films and in the area of real-time biological sensing. The emerging applications require an understanding of basic properties of LCLC. This work addresses these needs by providing the optical characterization of LCLC.
We studied in detail the optical anisotropic properties of three different nematic LCLCs: disodium cromoglycate (DSCG), Blue 27, and Violet 20. We determined the birefringence of these three materials as the function of the temperature T and wavelength λ and the corresponding dependencies of the absorption coefficients for Blue 27 and Violet 20. The birefringence is negative and significantly lower in the absolute value as compared to the birefringence of typical thermotropic N materials.
We determined the scalar order parameter of the nematic phase of Blue 27 and its temperature dependence. The scalar order parameter is close to the one predicted by the classic Onsager theory for solutions of rigid rods. However, this similarity is not complete, as the measured scalar order parameter depends on temperature. The I-N pretransitional fluctuations in an aqueous solution of DSCG were studied by light scattering. We obtained the correlation length of the orientational order-parameter fluctuations of isotropic DSCG solution. The pretransitional behavior of light scattering does not completely follow the classic Landau-de Gennes model. This feature is explained by the variable length of DSCG aggregates as a function of temperature.