Temperature-dependent isotropic-to-nematic transition of charged nanoplates.

Studies of temperature-dependent phase behaviors of discotic colloids are found infrequently in the literature. We establish here the isotropic-to-nematic (I-N) transition phase diagram of charged platelets in the temperature-versus-volume fraction plane. We discover that the N phase can be melted by increasing temperature, and that coexistent samples are more sensitive to polydispersity at higher temperature and higher concentration.