System-Size Effects on the Molecular Dynamics Simulation of an All-Aromatic Liquid Crystal.

For the N–I phase transition, the relatively small values of Δ H point to its weakly first-order nature, in agreement with theoretical predictions. On the other hand, for the SmA-N transition, the much smaller values of Δ H exhibit a clear trend to zero on increasing N , with the value of Δ H becoming null within errors for the largest two systems, unequivocally reflecting the experimentally observed second-order nature of the SmA-N phase transition. 3.2.

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