Abstract
Orientational distributions of the rod-shaped tobacco-mosaic-virus particle in magnetically aligned nematic solutions ( borate buffer, ) were measured by analysis of the angular spread of x-ray diffraction patterns. We measured Gaussian orientational distributions with order parameters varying between 0.77 in a solution with coexisting nematic and isotropic phase, to 0.95 in the single-phase nematic solution at higher concentration. Our experimental results are in good agreement with model calculations based on a modified Onsager theory for suspensions of hard rods.
- Received 6 July 1988
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.1851
©1988 American Physical Society