Mesophase

In physics , the mesophase is an aggregate state of a substance intermediate between a liquid and a solid . Gelatin is a well-known example of a partially ordered structure in the mesophase. Moreover, biological structures such as lipid bilayers and cell membranes are examples of a mesophase state.

Georges Friedel (1922) drew attention to the "mesomorphic states of matter" in his scientific evaluation of the observations of so-called liquid crystals .

For example, in the Physics of Liquid Crystals ^[1] de Gennes, mesophases are introduced from the very beginning:

: ... certain organic materials demonstrate not one transition from solid to liquid, but rather demonstrate a cascade of transitions involving new phases. The mechanical and symmetry properties of these new phases are intermediate between the properties of the liquid and the crystal. For this reason, they are often called “liquid crystals”. A more correct name is “mesomorphic phases” ( mesomorphic : intermediate form)