Phase separations induced by translational and orientational order parameters

Abstract

  In this paper, we introduce a mean-field theory to describe phase separations in mixtures of a nematic liquid crystal and a colloidal particle. The theory takes into account an orientational ordering of liquid crystals and a crystalline ordering of colloidal particles. We calculate phase diagrams on the temperature-concentration plane, depending on interactions between a liquid crystal and a colloidal surface. We find various phase separation processes, such as a nematic-crystal phase separation and nematic-isotropic-crystal triple point. Inside the binodal curves, we have new unstable and metastable regions which are important in phase ordering dynamics of colloidal dispersions.