A mean-field study of a model system of grafted rods

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Abstract
We study the phase behaviour of a model system of grafted rods on an impenetrable surface, using a van der Waals-like mean-field theory. By accounting for the anisotropy of the in-plane excluded volume effects, it is shown that the in-plane orientational symmetry can be broken for adsorption energy exceeding some critical value, in a density interval, thus leading to a discontinuity in (the deivative of) the fraction of molecules in each orientation. It is further demonstrated, using a van der Waals-type theory, that the inclusion of attractive interactions, when coupled with the anisotropic excluded volume effects, may drive the transition to first order, in addition to inducing the usual gas-liquid transition