title: Entropic wetting and the free isotropic-nematic interface of hard colloidal platelets.
abstract: We study bulk and interfacial properties of a model suspension of hard colloidal platelets with continuous orientations and vanishing thickness using both density functional theory, based on either a second virial approach or fundamental measure theory (FMT), and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. We calculate the bulk equation of state, bulk isotropic-nematic (IN) coexistence, and properties of the (planar) free IN interface and of adsorption at a planar hard wall, where we find complete wetting of the nematic phase at the isotropic-wall interface upon approaching bulk IN coexistence. We investigate in detail the asymptotic decay of correlations at large distances. In all cases, the results from FMT and MC agree quantitatively. Our findings are of direct relevance to understanding interfacial properties of dispersions of colloidal platelets.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Theoretische Physik II, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstrasse 1, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Hendrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Reich
authors.forename: Marjolein
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dijkstra
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: van Roij
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D000465:Algorithms; D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002627:Chemistry, Physical; D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003460:Crystallization; D019277:Entropy; D008956:Models, Chemical; D009010:Monte Carlo Method
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids