3-dimensional hard rods
Minimum distance
Density-functional theory
Infinitely long hard rods
- Main article: Onsager theory
Isotropic-nematic transition
Hard rods of sufficient length are able to display liquid crystalline behaviour, specifically, an isotropic to nematic transition, as well as the smectic phase.
- Ping Sheng "Hard rod model of the nematic-isotropic phase transition", RCA Review 35 pp. 132-143 (1974)
- J. D. Parsons "Nematic ordering in a system of rods" Physical Review A 19 1225-1230 (1979)
- H. H. Wensink and G. J. Vroege "Isotropic–nematic phase behavior of length-polydisperse hard rods", Journal of Chemical Physics 119 6868 (2003)
- D. Frenkel, H. N. W. Lekkerkerker and A. Stroobants "Thermodynamic stability of a smectic phase in a system of hard rods", Nature 332 pp. 822-823 (1988)