Molecular mechanics modelling of structure/property relationships in liquid crystals

Abstract
Molecular mechanics calculations are reported of structure/property correlations in some liquid crystals. An atom-atom intermolecular potential is used to calculate minimum energy configurations of pairs of mesogenic molecules. Observed effects of dipole-dipole association, twist sense in chiral nematics and properties of flexible nematogens are confirmed by the calculations. It is concluded that molecular mechanics can be a useful technique for predicting liquid-crystalline properties of potentially mesogenic molecules.