DOI: 10.1051/jp2:1994110
J. Phys. II France 4 (1994) 1763-1769
Demixing in a hard rod-plate mixture
René van Roij and Bela MulderFOM-Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMOLF), Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
(Received 5 April 1994, accepted 1 July 1994)
Abstract
We argue that the possibility to observe a stable biaxial nematic phase in a binary mixture of prolate and oblate hard particles
is seriously limited by the existence of entropydriven demixing. This result follows from a simple Onsager-type density functional
theory. An important feature is the coupling of the demixing mechanism to the orientational order of the system. The strength
of this coupling is dependent on the asphericity of the particles, and is directly related to the stability of the biaxial
nematic phase.
© Les Editions de Physique 1994