Search

The orientational order parameters and conformational behavior of five relatively large rodlike molecules, biphenyl, trans-stilbene, 1,3-diphenyl-butadiene, 1,3,5-diphenyl-hexatriene, and 1,3,5,7-diphenyl-octatetraene, dissolved in the thermotropic liquid crystal ZLI-1167, have been studied using an integrated approach combining 13C NMR measurements and quantum mechanical computations of carbon chemical shift tensors. Besides biphenyl, the phenyl moiety of all structures has been found to have a high rotational mobility in the temperature range of the present experiments. The rank-two order parameter in the nematic phase is found to increase steadily from the shortest to the longest term of the series at any temperature within the nematic range. The molecular biaxiality order parameter is found to be small and essentially constant with temperature, giving further support to the common assumption of effective uniaxiality for these probes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

High-level ab initio g and A tensor components have been calculated for PD-tempone and tempo-palmitate (TP) radical spin probes dissolved in n-pentyl and n-hexyl cyanobiphenyl liquid crystals. Solvent effects have been included in the proposed approach by means of the polarizable continuum model, allowing for solvent anisotropy. An in-depth analysis of the electronic structure of probes was performed to choose a suitable model for TP and make the calculations more accessible. Computed magnetic tensor components have been compared with corresponding values measured in the rigid limit. The quality of the results suggests the use of quantum-mechanical data to determine the order parameter of the nematic from experimental electron-spin resonance measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...