High-resolution calorimetric study of a liquid crystalline organo-siloxane tetrapode with a biaxial nematic phase

High-resolution adiabatic scanning calorimetry and differential scanning calorimetry have been employed to study the thermal behavior of an organo-siloxane tetrapode reported to exhibit a biaxial nematic phase. No signature of the uniaxial to biaxial nematic phase transition could be retraced in sequential heating and cooling runs under different scanning rates, within the experimental resolution. The results obtained reveal that an extremely small heat should be involved in the uniaxial to biaxial nematic phase transition. The isotropic to uniaxial nematic transition at 318+/-0.01 K is very stable, and it is weakly first order with a rather small latent heat of 0.20+/-0.02 J/g .