Berlin 2005 – scientific programme

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AKB: Biologische Physik

AKB 100: Poster Session I

AKB 100.47: Poster

Saturday, March 5, 2005, 16:45–18:45, Poster TU D

Structure formation in systems of mesoscopic rods — •Andreas Richter and Thomas Gruhn — MPI-KG, Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476 Golm

We perform Monte Carlo simulations of a system of spherocylindrical rods. The interaction of the rods is described by a square-well-rod potential (SWR potential) which, basically, is a spherical square-well potential integrated over the midaxes of the interacting rods. It resembles the interaction of hard spherocylinders with locally attractive forces such as van-der-Waals and/or depletion forces. We investigate a 1:1 bidisperse mixture of rods with rod lengths lx =(6+1)d and ly =(3+1)d where d is the diameter of the rods. We observe the formation of smectic monolayers that exclusively consist of the longer rods. The monolayers coexist with an isotropic mixture of short and long rods.

We also investigated a system of spherocylindrical rods with a length l = (8+1)d and an SWR model potential in the presence of planar substrates. Monte Carlo simulations for a monodisperse system of rods with a length l = (8+1)d were performed. High nematic order is found parallel with the walls in the first fluid layer that contacts the wall. In a slit pore between two coplanar substrates we observe nematic capillary condensation that depends on the pressure and the pore width.