Departamento de Física, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Ave. San Rafael Atlixco 186, Col. Vicentina, 09340 México, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
Soft Matter. 2018 Apr 18;14(15):2846-2859. doi: 10.1039/c7sm02311a.
Molecular dynamics simulations were performed for a Gay-Berne discotic fluid confined in a slab geometry for two different anchorings: homeotropic (face-on) and planar (edge-on), and for two different confinement lengths. Our results show that the behaviour of the more confined system in the temperature region of the isotropic-nematic transition is critically influenced by the presence of the walls: the growth of the solid-liquid crystal interface spans over the entire width of the cell, and the character of the transition is changed from first order to continuous. For all the confined systems studied, we observe a higher nematic-columnar transition temperature and a smaller nematic phase region in the phase diagram, as compared with the behaviour of the infinite system.
进行了 Gay-Berne 盘状流体在两种不同锚定方式（面内和边缘）和两种不同约束长度的平板几何形状中的分子动力学模拟。我们的结果表明，在各向同性-向列相转变温度区域内，更受限系统的行为受到壁面的极大影响：固-液晶体界面的生长跨越了整个单元的宽度，并且转变的性质从一级转变为连续。与无限系统的行为相比，对于所有研究的受限系统，我们观察到较高的向列-柱状转变温度和较小的相图中向列相区域。
