Eur. Phys. J. E (2010) 31: 81-87
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2010-10553-y

Regular Article

A molecular dynamics study of ferroelectric nanoparticles immersed in a nematic liquid crystal

¹ Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, 57072-970, Maceió, AL, Brazil
² Institute of the problems of Mechanical Engineering, Academy of Sciences of Russia, 199178, St. Petersburg, Russia

^* e-mail: italo@if.ufal.br

Received: 7 July 2009
Accepted: 9 December 2009
Published online: 27 January 2010

Abstract

A large number of interesting phenomena related to the insertion of colloidal particles in liquid crystals (LC) have recently been reported. Here, we investigate effects caused by the addition of spherically shaped ferroelectric nanoparticles to a nematic liquid crystal. Using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, the density of LC molecules, the orientational order parameter, and the polar and azimuthal angle profiles are calculated as functions of the distance to the center of the immersed nanoparticle for different temperatures of the system. We observe that the assembly of ferroelectric nanoparticles enhances the nematic order in the LC medium changing many properties of its host above the nematic-isotropic transition temperature T ^* _NI .