Liquid crystal nanodroplets in solution

W. M. Brown, M. K. Petersen, S. J. Plimpton, and G. S. Grest, J Chem Phys, 130, 044901 (2009).

The aggregation of liquid crystal nanodroplets from a homogenous solution are studied by molecular dynamics simulations. The liquid crystal particles are modeled as elongated ellipsoidal Gay-Berne particles while the solvent is modeled as spherical Lennard-Jones particles. Extending previous studies of (Berardi et. al., J. Chem. Phys. 126, 044905 (2007)), we find that liquid crystal nanodroplets are not stable and that after sufficiently long times the nanodroplets always aggregate into a single large droplet. Results describing the droplet shape and orientation for different temperatures and shear rates are presented. The implementation of the Gay-Berne potential for biaxial ellipsoidal particles in a parallel molecular dynamics code is also briefly discussed.

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