Liquid crystalline and solid phases for a system of hard zigzag particles with Lennard-Jones sites in two-dimensions

• Published in: Physica A 2013-10, Vol.392 (20), p.4760-4771
• Main Authors: Lechuga-Sanabria, Fidelmar, Chapela, Gustavo A., Quintana-H, Jacqueline
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agglomeration; Attraction; Line shape; Liquid crystals; Molecular simulations; Phases; Solid phases; Statistical mechanics; Two dimensional; Two-dimensional systems
• ISSN: 0378-4371; 1873-2119
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2013.05.034

The map of low and high density phases of an idealized system, the infinitely hard zigzag line model with two Lennard-Jones (LJ) sites is presented. LJ sites are added to a previous model composed of the infinitely hard zigzag line shape particles, R.A. Perusqía, J. Peón, J. Quintana, Physica A 345 (1) (2005) 130–142. The attractions and the molecular volume added to this system through the LJ sites create a more realistic model and, as a consequence, a richer phase behavior is obtained. Although the volume of the LJ sites is quite small it is enough to produce solid phases, absent in the original model. On the other hand the smectic phase that was present in the hard system was not found in this case. Two molecular conformations are chosen to provide a comparison with the previous model. The isothermal–isobaric is used to establish the thermodynamic regions of the different molecular self aggregations and to compare them to already published results. •Comparison of 2 chiral models, only repulsions and repulsions +attractions.•The attractive sites are modeled via Lennard-Jones potentials.•Nematics appear in both models, while smectics only in the hard model.