Back to Search
Start Over
Role of length-polydispersity on the phase behavior of freely-rotating hard-rectangle fluid
- Source :
- Phys. Rev. E 95, 052702 (2017)
- Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- We used the Density Functional formalism, in particular the Scaled Particle Theory, applied to a length-polydisperse hard-rectangular fluid to study its phase behavior as a function of the mean particle aspect ratio ($\kappa_0$) and polydispersity ($\Delta_0$). The numerical solutions of the coexistence equations were calculated by transforming the original problem with infinite degrees of freedoms to a finite set of equations for the amplitudes of the Fourier expansion of the moments of the density profiles. We divided the study into two parts: The first one is devoted to the calculation of the phase diagrams in the packing fraction ($\eta_0$)- $\kappa_0$ plane for a fixed $\Delta_0$ and selecting parent distribution functions with exponential (the Schulz distribution) or Gaussian decays. In the second part we study the phase behavior in the $\eta_0$-$\Delta_0$ plane for fixed $\kappa_0$ while $\Delta_0$ is changed. We characterize in detail the orientational ordering of particles and the fractionation of different species between the coexisting phases. Also we study the character (second vs. first order) of the Isotropic-Nematic phase transition as a function of polydispersity. We particularly focused on the stability of the Tetratic phase as a function of $\kappa_0$ and $\Delta_0$. The Isotropic-Nematic transition becomes strongly of first order when polydispersity is increased: the coexisting gap widens and the location of the tricritical point moves to higher values of $\kappa_0$ while the Tetratic phase is slightly destabilized with respect to the Nematic one. The results obtained here can be tested in experiments on shaken monolayers of granular rods.<br />Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures
- Subjects :
- Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- arXiv
- Journal :
- Phys. Rev. E 95, 052702 (2017)
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsarx.1702.01993
- Document Type :
- Working Paper
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.95.052702