Phase diagram of hard colloidal platelets: a theoretical account
Abstract
We construct the complete liquid crystal phase diagram of hard plate-like cylinders for variable aspect ratio using Onsager's second virial theory with the Parsons-Lee decoupling approximation to account for higher-body interactions in the isotropic and nematic fluid phases. The stability of the solid (columnar) state at high packing fraction is included by invoking a simple equation of state based on a Lennard-Jones-Devonshire (LJD) cell model which has proven to be quantitatively reliable over a large range of packing fractions. By employing an asymptotic analysis based on the Gaussian approximation we are able to show that the nematic-columnar transition is universal and independent of particle shape. The predicted phase diagram is in qualitative agreement with simulation results.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0908.1362,
title = {Phase diagram of hard colloidal platelets: a theoretical account},
author = {H. H. Wensink and H. N. W. Lekkerkerker},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0908.1362},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
8 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Mol. Phys