Capillary condensation in liquid-crystal colloids

The capillary condensation between two spherical particles dispersed in the isotropic phase of a nematic liquid crystal was investigated. The interaction energies due to the formation of capillary bridges that reproduce experimental observations were calculated within the Landau-de Gennes theory. The fluctuations in the particle cluster were described by an effective two-state system, close to the critical point of the transition line separating the no-bridge from the bridge configuration. It was found that for the small particles, the transition line vanishes and the shape of interaction potential depends on particle size.