Osmotic compression of droplets of hard rods: A computer simulation study

Autor(en)

Yulia Trukhina, Swetlana Jungblut, Paul van der Schoot, Tanja Schilling

Abstrakt

By means of computer simulations, we study how droplets of hard, rodlike particles optimize their shape and internal structure under the influence of the osmotic compression caused by the presence of spherical particles that act as depletion agents. At sufficiently high osmotic pressures, the rods that make up the drops spontaneously align to turn them into uniaxial nematic liquid-crystallinedroplets. The nematic droplets or “tactoids” that are formed this way are not spherical but elongated, resulting from the competition between the anisotropic surface tension and the elastic deformation of the director field. In agreement with recent theoretical predictions, we find that sufficiently small tactoids have a uniform director field, while large ones are characterized by a bipolar director field. From the shape and director-field transformation of the droplets, we are able to estimate the surface anchoring strength and an average of the elastic constants of the hard-rod nematic.

Organisation(en)

Computergestützte Physik und Physik der Weichen Materie

Externe Organisation(en)

Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Eindhoven University of Technology

Journal

Journal of Chemical Physics

Band

130

ISSN

0021-9606

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3117924

Publikationsdatum

2009

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

1030 Physik, Astronomie

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/a68fa761-093b-43d6-95fa-9c1b7b4480a9