Nematic-nematic demixing in polydisperse thermotropic liquid crystals
Peter Sollich
Abstract
We consider the effects of polydispersity on isotropic-nematic phase equilibria in thermotropic liquid crystals, using a Maier-Saupe theory with factorized interactions. A sufficient spread (approx. 50%) in the interaction strengths of the particles leads to phase separation into two or more nematic phases, which can in addition coexist with an isotropic phase. The isotropic-nematic coexistence region widens dramatically as polydispersity is increased, leading to re-entrant isotropic-nematic phase separation in some regions of the phase diagram. We show that similar phenomena will occur also for non-factorized interactions as long as the interaction strength between any two particle species is lower than the mean of the intra-species interactions.
Create a lesson
Related papers
Designing tunable hyperuniformity in random organization through nonlocal noise
Yusheng Lei, Yuhan Peng, Ran Ni
Long-time Brownian dynamics of hard and sticky colloids by geometric projection
Rémi Martin, Sandrine Duluard, Céline Merlet
Statistical approach of random packing of polydisperse similar hyperspheres: with application to binomial and lognormal size distributions
H. J. H. Brouwers
Hydrated porous substrates modulate the spatiotemporal dynamics of bacterial turbulence
Zixiang Lin, Jin Zhu, Hongyi Bian et al.
Amplified transport variability in granular slope flows near the critical angle
Fumiaki Nakai, Yuto Sasaki
Topology Does Not Determine Defect Mobility in Active Polar Matter
Abhra Puitandy, Shradha Mishra