Non-equilibrium phase behaviour of rod-like viruses under shear flow

We present the non-equilibrium phase diagram of rod-like colloids (fd-viruses) under shear flow. The shear-induced displacement of the isotropic–nematic binodal is obtained from time resolved rheology measurements. Vorticity banding is observed within the biphasic region, as bounded by the binodal. Here, in the stationary state, regular, millimetre sized bands with mutually differing orientational order are stacked along the vorticity direction. For the fully nematic phase we determine the location of transition lines from tumbling to either wagging or flow aligning, depending on the concentration. The location of these dynamical transition lines agree with theory for hard rods, when scaling to the orientational order parameter in equilibrium.