English

A two-dimensional nematic phase of magnetic nanorods

Soft Condensed Matter 2015-04-07 v1 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

We report a hybrid mesophase consisting of magnetic nanorods confined between the non-ionic surfactant bilayers of a lamellar phase. The magnetic field-induced ordering of the nanorods was measured experimentally and modeled by a two-dimensional Onsager theory including the third virial coefficient. The nanorods are strongly confined in layers, with no orientational coupling from one layer to the next. At high volume concentration they exhibit spontaneous in-plane orientational ordering and form a stack of independent two-dimensional nematic systems. This isotropic-nematic transition is first-order.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1504.01040,
  title  = {A two-dimensional nematic phase of magnetic nanorods},
  author = {Kostyantyn Slyusarenko and Doru Constantin and Patrick Davidson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1504.01040},
  year   = {2015}
}