Long-time relaxation dynamics in nematic and smectic liquid crystals of soft repulsive colloidal rods

Daniela Cywiak, Alejandro Gil-villegas, Alessandro Patti

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Abstract

Understanding the relaxation dynamics of colloidal suspensions is crucial to identify the elements that influence the mobility of their constituents, assess their macroscopic response across the relevant time and length scales, and thus disclose the fundamentals underpinning their exploitation in formulation engineering. In this work, we specifically assess the impact of long-ranged ordering on the relaxation dynamics of suspensions of soft-repulsive rod-like particles, which are able to self-organise into nematic and smectic liquid-crystalline phases. Rods are modelled as soft repulsive spherocylinders with length-to-diameter ratio L ∗ = 5, interacting via the truncated and shifted Kihara potential. By performing Dynamic Monte Carlo simulations, we analyse the effect of translational and orientational order on the diffusion of the rods along the relevant directions imposed by the morphology of the background phases. To provide a clear picture of the resulting dynamics, we assess their dependence on temperature, which can dramatically determine the response time of the system relaxation and the self-diffusion coefficients of the rods. The computation of the van Hove correlation functions allows us to identify the existence of rods that diffuse significantly faster than
the average and whose concentration can be accurately adjusted by a suitable choice of temperature.
Original languageEnglish
JournalPhysical Review E
Volume105
Issue number1
Early online date18 Jan 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Jan 2022

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