title: Doping liquid crystals with nanoparticles. A computer simulation of the effects of nanoparticle shape.
abstract: We have studied, using Monte Carlo computer simulations, the effects that nanoparticles of similar size and three different shapes (spherical, elongated and discotic) dispersed at different concentrations in a liquid crystal (LC), have on the transition temperature, order parameter and mobility of the suspension. We have modelled the nanoparticles as berry-like clusters of spherical Lennard-Jones sites and the NP with a Gay-Berne model. We find that the overall phase behaviour is not affected by the addition of small amounts (xN = 0.1-0.5%) of nanoparticles, with the lowest perturbation obtained with disc-like nanoparticles at the lowest concentration. We observe a general decrease of the clearing temperature and a reduction in the orientational order with a change in its temperature variation, particularly in the case of the xN = 0.5% dispersions and with a more pronounced effect when the nanoparticles are spherical.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica Industriale "Toso Montanari" and INSTM, Università di Bologna, Viale Risorgimento 4, IT-40136 Bologna, Italy. claudio.zannoni@unibo.it.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Orlandi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica Industriale "Toso Montanari" and INSTM, Università di Bologna, Viale Risorgimento 4, IT-40136 Bologna, Italy. claudio.zannoni@unibo.it.
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Benini
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica Industriale "Toso Montanari" and INSTM, Università di Bologna, Viale Risorgimento 4, IT-40136 Bologna, Italy. claudio.zannoni@unibo.it.
authors.forename: Isabella
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Miglioli
authors.affiliation: Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Wright-atterson Air Force Base, Ohio 45433, USA. dean.evans@us.af.mil.
authors.forename: Dean R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.affiliation: National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv, UA-01601 Kyiv, Ukraine. victor.reshetnyak@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Reshetnyak
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica Industriale "Toso Montanari" and INSTM, Università di Bologna, Viale Risorgimento 4, IT-40136 Bologna, Italy. claudio.zannoni@unibo.it.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zannoni