Confinement Induced Ordering in Fluid of Hard Ellipsoids
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Graphical Abstract
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Abstract
The ordering configurations of a fluid of anisotropic ellipsoids under the confinement of two apposing impenetrable walls are studied by Monte Carlo simulations. The excess adsorption of the fluid on the walls with respect to the aspect ratio has a maximum at the critical aspect ratio of 2.9 in high-density ellipsoid fluids, indicating an orientational ordering in the adjacent region of the walls, which is confirmed by probing into the density configurations and the orientational order parameter in the adjacent region of the walls for varying aspect ratios. In addition, the orientational order parameter in the bulk fluid at the same density is calculated, and it indicates an isotropic state as the bulk density is still below the bulk isotropic-to-nematic transition. Therefore, it can be concluded that the anisotropic ordering near the walls in the ellipsoid fluid that exhibits isotropic in the bulk is induced by the confinement effect of the walls.
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