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Effect of persistent flexibility on the isotropic, nematic and columnar ordering in a self-assembling system

1991; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 10; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/02678299108241736

1366-5855

Reinhard Hentschke,

Material Dynamics and Properties

Abstract Concentrated solutions of reversibly assembling amphiphilic molecules often exhibit a variety of liquid-crystalline mesophases due to the asymmetry of their aggregates. For strongly elongated rod-like micelles flexibility may significantly influence the relative stability of these phases. This question is addressed for a simple model for a self-assembling system of monodisperse linear rod-like aggregates which are considered to be persistent flexible. Analogously to a recent calculation for a self-assembling system in which the rod-like aggregates are assumed to be perfectly rigid, persistent flexible aggregates may exhibit the same isotropic-nematic-columnar progression of phases. However, increasing the flexibility reduces the concentration range over which the nematic phase is stable. For sufficiently flexible aggregates the nematic phase is abandoned altogether and a direct isotropic-columnar transition occurs.