Kinetics of phase transition in a lyotropic liquid-crystalline polymer system

The radius R, the radius distribution function, and the number density of g rowing cholesteric droplets in metastable solutions' of cellulose tris-(phe nyl carbamate) (CTC) were measured as function of time t after quench, by p olarizing microscopy. From the R dependence of the growth rate of cholester ic droplets, we concluded that the rate-determining process in the choleste ric droplet growth is the orientation of CTC molecules at the isotropic-cho lesteric interface.