The key difference between liquid crystal solid and liquid is that liquid crystals have properties of conventional liquids and solid crystals, and solids have tightly bound atoms or molecules, whereas liquids have loosely bound atoms or molecules.
There are three major phases of matter as solid phase, liquid phase, and gas phase. Liquid crystals are a sub-category of liquids and solids.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is a Liquid Crystal
3. What is a Solid
4. What is a Liquid
5. Liquid Crystal vs Solid vs Liquid in Tabular Form
6. Summary – Liquid Crystal vs Solid and Liquid
What is a Liquid Crystal?
Liquid crystal is a state of matter having properties between the properties of conventional liquids and the properties of solid crystals. It is abbreviated as LC. For example, a liquid can flow like a liquid, but the liquid molecules are oriented similar to those of a crystal. We can observe different types of liquid-crystal phases, and these can be distinguished using their optical properties, e.g. texture. In contrast, the domains where liquid crystal molecules are oriented in different directions. We can observe that the molecules within a domain are well ordered. Moreover, liquid crystal materials do not always occur in a liquid-crystal state of matter.
We can divide liquid crystals into three major phases: thermotropic, lyotropic, and metallotropic phases. Thermotropic and lyotropic crystals can mainly contain organic molecules. But there are a few minerals as well. Furthermore, thermotropic liquid crystals show a phase transition into the liquid crystal phase when the temperature changes. On the other hand, lyotropic liquid crystals show phase transitions as a function of both temperature and concentration of the molecules in the liquid crystal in a solvent such as water. Besides, metallotropic liquid crystals consist of both organic and inorganic molecules, and the liquid-crystal transition might depend on both the temperature-concentration properties and the inorganic-organic composition ratio.
What is a Solid?
Solid is one of the four fundamental states of matter. In solids, the molecules are closely packed together. Moreover, solids contain the least amount of kinetic energy. We can characterize a solid by structural rigidity and resistance to a force that is applied to a surface.
Solids are different from liquids because solid matter does not show flowing properties and does not take the shape of the container as liquids do. This is because atoms or molecules in a container are typically bound to each other tightly. This tight arrangement can be regular or irregular.
What is a Liquid?
Liquids are nearly incompressible fluids that have the ability to flow. A liquid has no particular shape, it takes the shape of the container that it is in, but the liquid retains a constant volume, and the volume is independent of pressure.
A liquid contains tiny particles (vibrating particles) of matter, such as atoms. These particles are held together by intermolecular bonds. Most liquids resist compression, but some liquids can be compressed. Distinctively, a liquid has the property of surface tension. The most common liquid on Earth is water.
What is the Difference Between Liquid Crystal Solid and Liquid?
There are different phases of matter, such as solid, liquid, and gas. Liquid crystals are a combination of liquids and solids. The key difference between liquid crystal solid and liquid is that liquid crystals have properties of conventional liquids, and solid crystals and solids have tightly bound atoms or molecules, whereas liquids have loosely bound atoms or molecules.
Below is a summary of the difference between liquid crystal solid and liquid in tabular form for side by side comparison.
Summary – Liquid Crystal vs Solid vs Liquid
Liquid crystal is a state of matter having properties between the properties of conventional liquids and the properties of solid crystals. Solid is one of the four fundamental states of matter where the molecules are closely packed together. Liquids are nearly incompressible fluids that have the ability to flow. The key difference between liquid crystal solid and liquid is that liquid crystals have properties of conventional liquids, and solid crystals and solids have tightly bound atoms or molecules, whereas liquids have loosely bound atoms or molecules.
Reference:
1. “Liquid Crystals.” Chemistry LibreTexts, Libretexts.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Nematische Phase Schlierentextur” By Minutemen – Own work (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Insulincrystals” By NASA/Marshall – Catalogued by Marshall Space Flight Center of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: 9901879. (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
3. “Water drop 001” By José Manuel Suárez (CC BY 2.0) via Commons Wikimedia