The phase behavior of rigid rods in an anisotropic mean field with applications to carbon nanotubes in nematic liquid crystals.
The phenomenological model [van der Schoot et al., J. Phys. Chem. B 112, 4512 (2008)] for predicting the alignment of carbon nanotube (CNT) dispersions in thermotropic liquid crystals is extended to include the attractive interactions between CNTs. The influence of the attractive forces (described by a spatially uniform mean field) on the phase behavior and orientational properties of the mixture are analyzed.
Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, P.O. Box MG-11, Bucharest 077125, Romania.
V
V
Popa-Nita