Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.493, 17-30, 2008
Crystallization Kinetics Study on Tilted Ordering in N-(p-n-Alkoxybenzylidene)-p-n-Alkylanilines (nOm Compounds) by Thermal and Electrical Techniques Part II
A systematic kinetic study of crystallization among two smectogens of higher homologues of the benzylideneaniline nOm series viz 15O.8 and 15O.10 has been carried out by thermal microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and dielectric studies. The crystallization kinetics was studied by two techniques viz the traditional thermal analysis (DSC) and electrical studies viz capacitance and dielectric loss variation with temperature. The DSC thermograms were run from crystallization temperature to the isotropic melt for different time intervals. The liquid crystalline behavior together with the rate of crystallization of smectic ordering in newly synthesized nOm compounds were discussed in relation to the kinetophase (which occurs prior to the crystallization). The molecular mechanism and dimensionality in the crystal growth were computed from the Avrami equation. The characteristic crystallization time (t*) at each crystallization temperature was deduced from the individual plots of logt and H. Further, it was observed that the data obtained from DSC and dielectric studies were in good agreement with one another.