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We investigate by means of continuum percolation theory and Monte Carlosimulations how spontaneous uniaxial symmetry breaking affects geometricpercolation in dispersions of hard rod-like particles. If the particle aspectratio exceeds about twenty, percolation in the nematic phase can be lost uponadding particles to the dispersion. This contrasts with percolation in theisotropic phase, where a minimum particle loading is always required to obtainsystem-spanning clusters. For sufficiently short rods, percolation in theuniaxial nematic mimics that of the isotropic phase, where the addition ofparticles always aids percolation. For aspect ratios between twenty andinfinity, but not including infinity, we find re-entrance behavior: percolationin the low-density nematic may be lost upon increasing the amount ofnanofillers but can be re-gained by the addition of even more particles to thesuspension. Our simulation results for aspect ratios of 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100strongly support our theoretical predictions, with almost quantitativeagreement. We show that a new closure of the connectedness Ornstein-Zernikeequation, inspired by Scaled Particle Theory, is more accurate than theLee-Parsons closure that effectively describes the impact of many-body directcontacts.

Unusual geometric percolation of hard nanorods in the uniaxial nematic liquid crystalline phase