Pressure Effects of Nematic Liquid Crystals

In Ref. (1), a phenomenological theory of pressure effects of nematic liquid crystals is given and used successfully in the interpretation of a large amount of experimental data. On this basis, in this paper, problems related to the free energy Go(P, T) of the isotropic phase are discussed, experiments of S(V T), P(V, T), In T ∼ In V(S fixed), etc. are explained, predictions including the relations S(V. T), KT(P), etc. are presented. Here, S is the order parameter, KT the isothermal compressibility. Related theories and experiments of pressure effects in the literature are discussed and compared. Results in this paper strengthen further the basic assumptions of the theory given in Ref. (1).