#8 Interfacial Tension in Liquid Crystals

Interfaces between ordered and disordered phases in liquid crystal mixtures play a key role in shaping the material’s structure and dynamics. These interfaces show rich behavior due to the interplay between changes in composition and the microscopic alignment of the molecules. Properties like interfacial tension, preferred molecular orientation at the boundary, and the shape of the interface itself depend sensitively on energetic and entropic conditions.

This project combines theoretical modeling with numerical methods to investigate how these interfaces behave in nematic–isotropic fluid mixtures. Students will use thermodynamic field theories to explore equilibrium interface profiles and extract key interfacial properties such as surface tension and molecular orientation patterns.