2014/03/21 by Sven Dorosz, Nikhilesh Shegokar, Dorosz, Sven +5
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Granular flow and fluidized beds #Material Dynamics and Properties #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1403.5387
arxiv created 2014/03/21 · openalex publication_date 2014/03/21 · arxiv updated 2014/03/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Suspensions of hard colloidal particles frequently serve as model systems in studies on fundamental aspects of phase transitions. But often colloidal particles that are considered as ``hard'' are in fact weakly charged. If the colloids are spherical, weak charging has a only a weak effect on the structural properties of the suspension, which can be easily corrected for. However, this does not hold for anisotropic particles. We introduce a model for the interaction potential between charged ellipsoids of revolution (spheroids) based on the Derjaguin approximation of Debye--Hückel Theory and present a computer simulation study on aspects of the system's structural properties and phase behaviour. In line with previous experimental observations, we find that even a weak surface charge has a strong impact on the correlation functions. A likewise strong impact is seen on the phase behaviour, in particular, we find stable cubatic order in suspensions of oblate ellipsoids.