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Nematic-isotropic transition in a density-functional theory for hard spheroidal colloids

2018/11/01 by E. S. Nascimento, Eduardo dos S. Nascimento · 2 citations
Chemistry · Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Anisotropy #Chemistry #Colloid #Condensed matter physics #Density functional theory #Distribution function #Energy functional #Isotropy #Liquid Crystal Research Advancements #Liquid crystal #Material Dynamics and Properties #Materials science #Mathematics #Molecule #Monte Carlo method #Phase transition #Physical chemistry #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Statistical physics #Theoretical and Computational Physics #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech #van der Waals force

paper · pdf · doi:10.1140/epje/i2018-11746-0

published in The European Physical Journal E 41(11), 136 (Springer Science+Business Media) · 12 pages, 5 figures

openalex publication_date 2018/11/01 · arxiv created 2018/12/27 · arxiv updated 2018/12/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We introduce a density-functional formalism based on the Parsons-Lee and the generalized van der Waals theories in order to describe the thermodynamics of anisotropic particle systems with steric interactions. For ellipsoids of revolution, the orientational distribution function is obtained by minimizing the free energy functional and the equations of state are determined. The system exhibits a nematic-isotropic discontinuous transition, characterized by a phase separation between nematic and isotropic phases at finite as well low packing fractions. The model presents a phase behavior which is in good agreement with Monte-Carlo simulations for finite aspect ratios.

Citations