Field percolation-switching in soft ternary anisotropic system

Abstract

We study numerically external electric or magnetic field driven switching between percolated and non-percolated configuration of nanoparticles in soft matter ternary systems. The system consists of nematic liquid crystal, impurities and elongated nanoparticles. We use the Lebwohl–Lasher lattice−type modeling to determine the orientational order of nanoparticles and consequently the Metropolis algorithm to find the percolation threshold. In our model the external field acts directly only on the liquid crystal component, which in turn tends to reorient nanoparticles. We determine regimes where an external field relatively robustly switches between percolated and non-percolated states. The main variable physical parameters are volume concentration and length-to-width ratio of nanoparticles, concentration of impurities and temperature. We have revealed that impurities imposing static orientational disorder are a significant part of the system. A possible application is also proposed.