Both these factors are thought to significantly influence the phase diagram. Theoretically one finds that for sufficiently polydisperse rods the smectic phase is suppressed in favour of a columnar phase. Considered was a suspension of slightly flexible sphero-cylinders with a contour length L and a persistence length . The phase behaviour of the particles, assumed to interact via a hard core repulsion, was investigated in a self-consistent field approximation. The particles are ordered in one dimension, but still display liquid-like disorder in the remaining two dimensions.
Flexibility influences the nematic and smectic phases in different ways.
It decreases the orientational order in the nematic phase by an amount that depends on . When the smectic state presumably becomes absolutely unstable and is suppressed in favour of the columnar phase. An alternative explanation can be given in terms of macromolecular flexibility. P. van der Schoot References 1 G. J. Vroege and H. N. W. Lekkerkerker, Rep. Prog. 2 A. N. Bohle, R. Holyst and T. Vilgis, Phys.