Hard-body models of bulk liquid crystals

Abstract

Hard models for particle interactions have played a crucial role in the understanding of the structure of condensed matter. In particular, they help to explain the formation of oriented phases in liquids made of anisotropic molecules or colloidal particles, and continue to be of great interest in the formulation of theories for liquids in bulk, near interfaces and in biophysical environments. Hard models of anisotropic particles give rise to complex phase diagrams, including uniaxial and biaxial nematic phases, discotic phases, and spatially ordered phases such as smectic, columnar or crystal. Also, their mixtures exhibit additional interesting behaviours where demixing competes with orientational order. Here we review the different models of hard particles used in the theory of bulk anisotropic liquids, leaving aside interfacial properties, and discuss the associated theoretical approaches and computer simulations, focusing on applications in equilibrium situations. The latter include one-component bulk fluids, mixtures and polydisperse fluids, both in two and three dimensions, and emphasis is put on liquid-crystal phase transitions and complex phase behaviour in general.

Accepted for publication in J. Phys. Condens. Matter. 150 pages (preprint), 44 figures

References in corpus (15)

• Hard-body models of bulk liquid crystals
• Enhancement by polydispersity of the biaxial nematic phase in a mixture of hard rods and plates
• From rods to helices: evidence of a screw-like nematic phase
• Orientational ordering in hard rectangles: The role of three-body correlations
• Theory and simulation of two-dimensional nematic and tetratic phases
• Orientational correlations and the effect of spatial gradients in the equilibrium steady state of hard rods in 2D : A study using deposition-evaporation kinetics
• Capillary ordering and layering transitions in two-dimensional hard-rod fluids
• A fundamental-measure density functional for mixtures of parallel hard cylinders
• Phase behavior of parallel hard cylinders
• Demixing and orientational ordering in mixtures of rectangular particles
• Enhanced stability of tetratic phase due to clustering
• Liquid crystalline phases and demixing in binary mixtures of shape-anisometric colloids
• Non-uniform liquid--crystalline phases of parallel hard rod-shaped particles: From ellipsoids to cylinders
• Phase behavior of liquid-crystal monolayers of rod-like and plate-like particles
• Biaxial nematic and smectic phases of parallel particles with different cross sections

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Hard-body models of bulk liquid crystals
• The isotropic-nematic transition for hard rods on a three--dimensional (3D) cubic lattice
• Algebraic equations of state for the liquid crystalline phase behavior of hard rods
• Demixing and tetratic ordering in some binary mixtures of hard superellipses
• The study of uniaxial-biaxial phase transition of confined hard ellipsoids using density functional theory
• Effect of clustering on the orientational properties of a fluid of hard right isosceles triangles
• Sedimentation of colloidal plate-sphere mixtures and inference of particle characteristics from stacking sequences
• Explicit excluded volume of cylindrically symmetric convex bodies
• Spinodal instabilities in polydisperse lyotropic nematics
• From n-layer planar ordering to the monolayer homeotropic structure of confined hard rods: The effect of shape anisotropy and wall-to-wall separation
• Orientational ordering and correlations in a quasi-one-dimensional hard-dumbbell fluid
• Nematic-isotropic transition in a density-functional theory for hard spheroidal colloids
• Density-functional theory for clustering of two-dimensional hard particle fluids
• Topology of orientational defects in confined smectic liquid crystals
• Confinement Reveals Hidden Splay-Bend Order in Twist-Bend Nematics