What is Nematic Liquid Crystal?

Nematic liquid crystals (nematic liquid crystals) are composed of rod-like molecules with a large aspect ratio, and the molecular center of mass has no long-range ordering. It has fluidity similar to ordinary liquid. The molecules are not arranged in layers. It can slide up and down, left and right, and back and forth, and only keep parallel or nearly parallel in the long axis direction of the molecules. The short-range intermolecular interaction is weak and belongs to the Van der Waals gravitational force. This spontaneous alignment process of the long axes of the molecules parallel to each other causes the liquid crystal to have a high birefringence. In addition, compared with smectic liquid crystal, nematic liquid crystal has a lower viscosity and is rich in fluidity. The reason for this fluidity is mainly because each molecule of the nematic liquid crystal is easy to move freely along the long axis direction. ^[1]