Three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations of internal aggregate structures in a colloidal dispersion composed of rod-like particles with magnetic moment normal to the particle axis

Abstract

We have treated a suspension composed of ferromagnetic rod-like particles with a magnetic moment normal to the particle axis in order to investigate aggregation phenomena of such a suspension by means of cluster-moving Monte Carlo simulations. In the present study, we have considered a three-dimensional mono-dispersed model system composed of such rod-like particles. Internal structures of self-assembled clusters have been discussed quantitatively in terms of radial distribution, pair correlation, orientational pair correlation functions, number distributions of clusters, and order functions. The main results obtained here are summarized as follows. Rod-like particles tend to aggregate to form raft-like clusters along the magnetic moment direction more significantly with magnetic particle–particle interactions. In such raft-like clusters, the direction of each particle axis has a tendency to incline in parallel formation, but is not so parallel as in a two-dimensional dispersion. As the volumetric fraction increases, longer raft-like clusters are formed, but such raft-like clusters do not aggregate further to form thicker clusters, which is in significantly contrast with a dispersion of spherical particles, where thicker chain-like clusters are observed under certain conditions. For the case of strong magnetic particle–particle interactions, sufficiently long raft-like clusters are formed along the magnetic field direction, even if the influence of an external magnetic field is of the same order of that of the thermal energy. However, rod-like particles in such clusters do not necessarily incline in significantly parallel formation along a certain direction. Self-assembled tube-like clusters are formed when magnetic particle–particle interactions are much more dominant than the rotational Brownian motion under circumstances of rod-like particles inclining in a certain direction.