Local orientational ordering in fluids of spherical molecules with dipolarlike anisotropic adhesion

Domenico Gazzillo, Riccardo Fantoni, and Achille Giacometti

Phys. Rev. E 80, 061207 – Published 31 December 2009

Abstract

We discuss some interesting physical features stemming from our previous analytical study of a simple model of a fluid with dipolarlike interactions of very short range in addition to the usual isotropic Baxter potential for adhesive spheres. While the isotropic part is found to rule the global structural and thermodynamical equilibrium properties of the fluid, the weaker anisotropic part gives rise to an interesting short-range local ordering of nearly spherical condensation clusters, containing short portions of chains having nose-to-tail parallel alignment, which runs antiparallel to adjacent similar chains.