Osmotic compression of droplets of hard rods: A computer simulation study
- Author(s)
- Yulia Trukhina, Swetlana Jungblut, Paul van der Schoot, Tanja Schilling
- Abstract
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(s)
- Computational and Soft Matter Physics
- External organisation(s)
- Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Eindhoven University of Technology
- Journal
- Journal of Chemical Physics
- Volume
- 130
- ISSN
- 0021-9606
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3117924
- Publication date
- 2009
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 1030 Physics, Astronomy
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/osmotic-compression-of-droplets-of-hard-rods-a-computer-simulation-study(a68fa761-093b-43d6-95fa-9c1b7b4480a9).html