A Monte Carlo simulation study of binary mixtures of charged hard spherocylinders and charged hard spheres

In this work, we report Monte Carlo results for thermodynamic and structural properties of an electro-neutral binary mixture of charged hard spherocylinders and charged hard spheres. We have examined the effects of the presence of charged hard spheres on the liquid crystalline phases of charged hard spherocylinders for two different models, namely, with charges located at the end or at the center of the spherocylinders. In both cases isotropic and nematic phases are observed. However, at higher densities the systems present nematic-smectic-A and nematic-columnar phase transitions for the first and second models, respectively, according to the simulated structure factor. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.