8th Liquid Matter Conference September 6-10, 2011 Wien, Austria ...

P3.14Fri 911:10-14:00Tuning diffusion and phase behaviour with tuneablerod-like virusesPavlik Lettinga, 1 Gerhard Gompper, 1 Emilie Pouget, 2 and Eric Grelet 21 Forschungszentrum Jülich, Leo Brandstrasse, D52425, Jülich, Germany2 Centre Recherche Paul Pascal, Pessac, FranceWe investigate diffusion and phase behaviour of rod-like viruses with tuneable features using fluorescencevideo microscopy. Charge and thickness are used as parameters to tune the distanceof rods in the nematic phase. Thus we could identify the effect of hydrodynamic interactions betweenrods. Rods with different flexibility show a very different diffusive behaviour around thenematic-smectic (N-Sm) transition. While for flexible rods the ratio between diffusion paralleland perpendicular to the long axis increases after the N-Sm transition, we observe a decrease forstiff rods. The diffusion rates before the N-Sm transition are comparable, but for flexible rodsthe transition is at significantly higher concentrations. Hence we found a dynamic signature fordestabilisation of the smectic phase due to rod flexibility.14