PSSM Workshop on Liquid Crystals and Colloidal Dispersions
Simulation studies of spherical nanoparticles in mesogenic media.
Matt Glaser, University of Colorado at Boulder
Abstract: We describe results from simulations of spherical nanoparticles in a nematogenic solvent consisting of soft spherocylinders. We find that nanoparticles remain well dispersed in the isotropic (low-density) phase of the solvent, but demix into a nanoparticle-poor nematic phase and a nanoparticle-rich isotropic phase at higher pressures. When the nanoparticle-spherocylinder interactions are modified to promote homeotropic anchoring, the solvent-induced interaction between nanoparticles in the isotropic phase exhibits strong intermediate-range repulsion that is expected to further stabilize nanoparticle dispersions. However, many-body effects appear to dominate nanoparticle-nanoparticle interactions in the isotropic phase with homeotropic anchoring even at the lowest nanoparticle concentration investigated, resulting in suppression of the intermediate range repulsion and leading to nanoparticle aggregation. The effective interactions between nanoparticles in nematogenic media are similar to depletion interactions in colloidal systems, suggesting a strong analogy between nanoparticles in thermotropic liquid crystals and lyotropic mixtures of colloidal spheres and rods.
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Important Dates
| June 10, 2009: | Final Program |
| June 22, 2009: | PSSM Workshop |
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