20.500.12556/DKUM-92319 Criticality controlling mechanisms in nematic liquid crystals We theoretically study the generic mechanisms that could establish critical behavior in nematic liquid crystals (NLCs). The corresponding free energy density terms should exhibit linear coupling with the nematic order parameter and, via this coupling, enhance the nematic order. We consider both temperature- and pressure-driven, order–disorder phase transitions. We derive a scaled effective free energy expression that describes how qualitatively different mechanisms enforce critical behavior. Our main focus is on the impact of nanoparticles (NPs) in homogeneous NP-NLC mixtures. We illustrate that in the case of pressure-driven phase changes, lower concentrations are needed to impose critical point conditions in comparison with pure temperature variations. nematic liquid crystals critical point critical behavior phase transition nematski tekoči kristali kritična točka kritično obnašanje fazni prehod true false true MDPI Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Znanstveno delo 2025-03-28 14:18:10 2025-03-28 14:49:25 2025-03-29 03:12:48 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2024 0 0 Str. 1-13 št. 3, št. članka 320 Letn. 14 Feb. 2024 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 2023-12-15 2024-02-02 2024-02-05 53 183876867 10.3390/nano14030320 2079-4991 Zid_2024_Criticality_Controlling_Mechanisms.pdf Zid_2024_Criticality_Controlling_Mechanisms.pdf 1 D908400CCEF2D258F1298FEB58DE8E66 5d6a7a1a95870956208beb831ee04d1dc4362b817260f1c870f79333929a3410 312d0a2e-0bdb-11f0-af5a-00155d000105 https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=189802 https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14030320 0 18ae1d5e-0bd7-11f0-af5a-00155d000105 https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=189798 Fakulteta za naravoslovje in matematiko 0 0 0