title: Gravity-induced liquid crystal phase transitions of colloidal platelets.
abstract: The influence of gravity on a suspension of sterically stabilized colloidal gibbsite platelets is studied. An initially isotropic-nematic biphasic sample of such a suspension develops a columnar phase on the bottom on prolonged standing. This phenomenon is described using a simple osmotic compression model. We performed Monte Carlo simulations of cut spheres with aspect ratio L/D=1/15 and took data from the literature to supply the equations of state required for the model. We find that the model describes the observed three-phase equilibrium quite well.
authors.affiliation: Van't Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: van der Beek
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schilling
authors.forename: Henk N W
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Lekkerkerker