title: Percolation in polydisperse systems of aligned rods: a lattice-based analysis.
abstract: A model is developed for percolation in polydisperse systems of oriented cylinders that integrates excluded volume arguments with an analogy to site percolation on a modified Bethe lattice. Results from this treatment are presented for the volume fraction at the percolation threshold (denoted ϕc) as a function of the degree of polydispersity, mixture composition, and degree of orientational ordering. For monodisperse systems, ϕc is found to be a monotonically increasing function of the traditional orientational order parameter that quantifies degree of alignment. The presence of a fraction of isotropically oriented rods of small aspect ratio is shown to lower the percolation threshold for systems in which the longer rods are strongly aligned.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Jahn Laboratory, One Forestry Drive, Syracuse, New York 13210, USA.
authors.forename: Avik P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Chatterjee