TY - JOUR AU - Klop, Kira E. AU - Dullens, Roel P. A. AU - Lettinga, M. P. AU - Egorov, Sergei A. AU - Aarts, Dirk G. A. L. TI - Capillary nematisation of colloidal rods in confinement JO - Molecular physics VL - 116 IS - 21-22 SN - 1362-3028 CY - London PB - Taylor & Francis M1 - FZJ-2018-07721 SP - 2864 - 2871 PY - 2018 AB - We confine a colloidal liquid crystal between parallel plates separated down to several times the rod length. By connecting the system to a reservoir we effectively create a grand canonical system, in which the liquid crystal displays an isotropic phase in the reservoir, but upon strong confinement becomes nematic between the parallel plates. This capillary nematisation transition can be followed down to the single particle level by means of laser scanning confocal microscopy. We compare the experimental findings to density functional theories (DFTs), within the Zwanzig model as well as a more advanced DFT, in which the effect of rod flexibility is taken into account. LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 UR - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000444571600011 DO - DOI:10.1080/00268976.2018.1497210 UR - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/858885 ER -