A size-independent law to describe the alignment of shape-anisotropic objects

A major challenge in the field of nanosciences is the assembly of anisotropic nano objects into aligned structures. The way the objects are aligned determines the physical properties of the final material. In this work, we take a closer look at the shapes of orientation distributions of aligned anisotropic nano and macro objects by examining previously published works. The data shows that the orientation distribution shape of anisotropic objects aligned by shearing and other commonly used methods varies size-independently between Laplace and Gaussian depending on the distribution width and on the cohesivity of the particles.