Paul van der Schoot (Author), Vlad Dumitru Popa-Nita (Author), Samo Kralj (Author)

Abstract

The self-organizing properties of nematic liquid crystals can be used to aligncarbon nanotubes dispersed in them. Because the nanotubes are so much thinner than the elastic penetration length, the alignment is caused by the coupling of the unperturbed director field to the anisotropic interfacial tension of the nanotubes in the nematic host fluid. In order to relate the degree of alignment of the nanotubes to the properties of the nematic liquid crystal, we treat the two components on the same footing and combine Landau-deGennes free energies for the thermotropic ordering of the liquid crystal and for the lyotropic nematic ordering of carbon nanotubes caused by their mutually excluded volumes. The phase ordering of the binary mixture is analyzed as a function of the volume fraction of the carbon nanotubes, the strength of the coupling and the temperature. We find that the degree of ordering of the nanorods is enslaved by the properties of the host liquid and that it can be tuned by raising or lowering the temperature or by increasing or decreasing their concentration. By comparing the theory to recent experiments, we find the anchoring energy of multiwalled carbon nanotubes to be in the range from 10-10 to 10-7 N m-1.

Keywords

tekoči kristali;nematični kristali;molekularna dinamika;stabilnost;elastičnost;ne zaključna dela;liquid crystals;nematic crystals;molecular dynamics;stability;elasticity;carbon nanotubes;

Data

Language: English
Year of publishing:
Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization: UM FNM - Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
UDC: 538.9
COBISS: 15940616 Link will open in a new window
ISSN: 1520-6106
Views: 1832
Downloads: 84
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Other data

Secondary language: Slovenian
Secondary keywords: Tekoči kristali;
URN: URN:SI:UM:
Type (COBISS): Article
Pages: str. 4512-4518
Volume: 112
Issue: ǂissue ǂ15
Chronology: 2008
DOI: 10.1021/jp712173n
ID: 8724018