PRETRANSFORMATION BEHAVIOR OF NEMATIC PHASES IN RELATION TO RETENTION VOLUMES

Numerous investigations of the melting behavior of certain kinds of crystalline solids have shown that a lowering of the structural order takes place at temperatures below the melting point. Transport phenomena and thermodynamic functions correspondingly deviate from their ordinary values, i.e. from values extrapolated from lower temperatures into the premelting range. A survey on such phenomena, generally called “pretransformation” effects or, more precisely, homogeneous pretransformation effects, bas been given by A. R. Ubbelohde (1). As another instructive but more general survey the review article of L. A. K. Staverley (2) should be mentioned. © 1969, Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.