Phase transitions of semiflexible hard-sphere chain liquids

Hanif Bayat Movahed, Raul Cruz Hidalgo, and D. E. Sullivan
Phys. Rev. E 73, 032701 – Published 21 March 2006

Abstract

We present a density-functional theory for describing liquid-crystalline phase transitions in a fluid of semiflexible hard-sphere chain molecules based on the Onsager second-virial approximation for the free energy. Key ingredients of this theory are the generation of semiflexible chain conformations and calculation of the pair excluded volume and excluded area using a single-chain Monte Carlo enumeration method. First, we investigate the isotropic-nematic phase transition. Next, the theory is extended to account for a smectic-A phase by a bifurcation analysis around the nematic solution. The perturbation is calculated using a lowest-order Fourier series representation.

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  • Received 29 December 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.73.032701

©2006 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Hanif Bayat Movahed1,2, Raul Cruz Hidalgo1,3, and D. E. Sullivan1

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Guelph, and Guelph-Waterloo Physics Institute, Guelph, ON N1G2W1, Canada
  • 2Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3H6, Canada
  • 3Departament de Física Fonamental, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028-Barcelona, Spain

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Vol. 73, Iss. 3 — March 2006

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