16 October 1991

Nobel Prize in Physics to

Professor Pierre-Gilles de
Gennes, College de France,
Paris.
The master of analogies

Lyquid crystal phase transition

 A smectic
crystal
viewed
through a
polarisation
microscope

Nematic
"droplets"
with the
direction of
molecular
orientation
marked

A liquid of
Smectic-Nematic- nematic
"droplets" viewed

Isotropic
through a
polarisation
microscope.
Different layers
correspond to
different
molecular
directions
 Liquid crystals

Liquid crystals consist of elongated organic molecules, generally 3-5 nm long.

MBBA molecule. With hydrocarbon chains attached, such molecules can give
rise to a number of different phases according to the temperature.
 Plastic, rubber, plexiglas, gels and
textile fibres such as nylon and
polyester are all synthetic materials
made of polymer molecules.

A Frisbee is a mixture of crystalline

(ordered) and amorphous (disordered)
What do they look like? ........ polymer structures.
This makes the material both strong
and flexible.

Each polymer molecule consists of

linked basic units called monomers.
The number of monomers in a chain
can be very large, from thousands to
several millions. The chains may be
entangled like spaghetti or be ordered
in crystalline formations.

The monomer is specific for every

polymer and determines the name of
the substance. A Frisbee is made of
polyethylene which consists of linked
ethylene (CH2CH2) monomers.
........ and how do they move?

Reptation model

The "silly putty", the strange

substance which is both solid and
liquid-like. If you pull it slowly in
comparison with the reptation
time, the material flows like a very
viscous liquid. If you form it into a
ball and strike it quickly, it
bounces like rubber.
 Pierre-Gilles de Gennes has succeeded in perceiving
common features in order phenomena in very widely differing
physical systems, and has been able to formulate rules for
how such systems move from order to disorder.