2008/12/18 by Eelco Eggen, Marjolein Dijkstra, René van Roij
Chemistry · Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Charge (physics) #Condensed matter physics #Coulomb #Electron #Electrowetting and Microfluidic Technologies #Liquid Crystal Research Advancements #Liquid crystal #Materials science #Molecular physics #Phase (matter) #Phase diagram #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Rod #Surfactants and Colloidal Systems #Thermodynamics #Virial coefficient #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.79.041401
17 pages, 8 figures
arxiv created 2008/12/18 · openalex publication_date 2009/04/02 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We explicitly calculate the orientation-dependent second virial coefficient of short charged rods in an electrolytic solvent, assuming the rod-rod interactions to be a pairwise sum of hard-core and segmental screened-Coulomb repulsions. From the parallel and isotropically averaged second virial coefficient, we calculate the effective length and diameter of the rods, for charges and screening lengths that vary over several orders of magnitude. Using these effective dimensions, we determine the phase diagram, where we distinguish a low-charge and strong-screening regime with a liquid crystalline nematic and smectic phase, and a high-charge and weak-screening regime with a plastic crystal phase in the phase diagram.