One-step Melting of rods confined on a spherical surface

The liquid crystal phase is a mesophase with intermediate symmetries between liquids and crystals. Shape anisotropic particles, such as spherocylinders, can form isotropic, liquid crystal, and crystal phases. If the centers of mass of such spherocylinders are confined on a curved surface, the surface confinement promotes orientational ordering in the system and thus the isotropic phase is destroyed at finite densities. We show that for planar confinement, only nematic and crystal phases are present, and the packing fraction at the transition is independent of the aspect ratio of the spherocylinders. When the particles are confined to the surface of a sphere, the phase transition packing fraction from nematic to crystal depends on the spherocylinders’ aspect ratio and the curvature of the sphere. This phase transition from a liquid to a crystal happens without an intermediate hexatic phase, up to the resolution of our simulations. Our research has practical implications, such as the creation of nanorod macrostructure on curved substrates and nanoparticles with specific valencies.