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

P3.26Fri 911:10-14:00Computer simulation study of the surface tension of thevapor-nematic planar interfacesLuis F. Rull 1 and Jose Manuel Romero-Enrique 11 Universidad de Sevilla, Dept. de Fisica Atomica, Molecular y Nuclear, , Avenida ReinaMercedes s/n 41012, Sevilla, SpainWe present computer simulation results of the surface tension of the Gay-Berne model for threeelongations (κ= 3, 4 and 6). The systems consist in a nematic phase in equilibrium with its vapor,when the director preferentially aligns parallel to the planar interface. Two methods have beenused to calculate the surface tension: the first one based on a thermodynamic route which evaluatesdifferences between free energies, and a virial route where the differences between the normal andparallel components of the pressure tensor are integrated. Our results show that the surface tensionhas a weak dependence on the molecular elongation.26