Does transparent nematic phase exist in 5CB/DDAB/water microemuisions? From the viewpoint of temperature dependent dielectric spectroscopy

Liquid crystal colloids have received tremendous attention because of its great potential both in the understanding of the liquid crystalline phase and in searching for new application of liquid crystals. Inverse microemulsion composed of 4-cyano-4-n-pentylbiphenyl (5CB), didodecyl dimethyl ammonium bromide, and water was investigated by means of broadband dielectric spectroscopy in this study. Based on the understanding of previous investigations on the same system, the isotropic phase was taken into account to quantitatively characterize the bulklike relaxations after the isotropic-to-nematic phase transition. Analogous results concerning the phase transition and phase composition to other investigations were obtained. In addition to bulklike relaxations, a new relaxation was observed at the frequency range about two orders lower than bulklike relaxations. This new relaxation shows abnormal temperature dependence, suggesting that superstructures composed of water droplets and confined 5CB molecules exist. This superstructure possibly possesses a confined nanoscaled liquid crystal ordering and may correspond to the notion of the transparent nematic phase. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3530782]