Isotropic-nematic transition in a mixture of hard spheres and hard spherocylinders: scaled particle theory description

Abstract

The scaled particle theory is developed for the description of thermodynamical properties of a mixture of hard spheres and hard spherocylinders. Analytical expressions for free energy, pressure and chemical potentials are derived. From the minimization of free energy, a nonlinear integral equation for the orientational singlet distribution function is formulated. An isotropic-nematic phase transition in this mixture is investigated from the bifurcation analysis of this equation. It is shown that with an increase of concentration of hard spheres, the total packing fraction of a mixture on phase boundaries slightly increases. The obtained results are compared with computer simulations data.

Keywords

• hard sphere/hard spherocylinder mixture
• isotropic-nematic transition
• scaled particle theory