Morphology of Colloidal Particles Dispersed in Nematic Solvent

24th Condensed Matter Days National Conference

Kumar, Anupam^1 ; Kumar Mandal, Biplab^1 ; Mishra, Pankaj^1

Condensed Matter Theory Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, Indian Institute of Technology (ISM), Dhanbad, India^1

关键词: Elastic interactions;    Integral-equation theory;    Interaction potentials;    Interaction strength;    Pair correlation functions;    Radial distribution functions;    Spherical colloidal particles;    Two dimensional plane;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/765/1/012022/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/765/1/012022

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

We have studied a system of spherical colloidal particles suspended in nematic liquid crystal confined to a two-dimensional plane. The dispersed colloidal particles pervert the uniform orientation of nematic resulting in topological defects. This small change in director field induces elastic interaction in the system. Considering the system exhibiting octopolar symmetry, the interaction of the particles can be described by octopole-octopole interaction potential which on some suitable scaling has the form, βu(r) ≈ Γ/r7, where Γ is dimensionless interaction strength parameter. We have calculated the pair correlation function and radial distribution function of the system by employing Roger-Young's integral equation theory, where the mixing parameter a, is obtained by demanding the consistency in pressure via virial and compressibility routs. With the increase in interaction strength, the system is found to become more ordered.