Shape-induced dispersion of colloids in anisotropic fluids.

摘要: We experimentally study the behavior of micrometer-sized prolate ellipsoidal particles dispersed in a nematic liquid crystal. The latter is an aqueous solution rodlike micelles. When embedded into such solvent, ellipsoids with small enough aspect ratios aggregate to form anisotropic structures oriented at angle respect local background director (as already observed for spheres). This is, however, no longer case when ratio reaches well-defined value: above that value, remain well and apparently do interact each other, even over very long periods time (several months). Therefore, there exists transition from aggregated nonaggregated state as function given particle concentration. has not been predicted so far we put forward simple calculations rationalize our observations.