On the anisotropic intermolecular potential of biaxial apolar solutes in nematic solvents: Monte Carlo predictions and experimental data

Recently, a new formulation has been proposed about a strictly short-range anisotropic potential acting on biaxial apolar particles dissolved in a uniaxial medium [Chem. Phys. Lett. 342, 375 (2001)], where the solute-solvent interactions are treated at a molecular level and the solute order parameters are calculated by making use of the Monte Carlo-Metropolis sampling scheme. In the present paper the cited model has been used for the study of 1,4-difluorobenzene, 1,4-dichlorobenzene, and 1,4-dibromobenzene molecules and the simulated order parameters have been compared with the H-1-NMR experimental data for the solutes in the nematic solvents ZLI1132 (a Merck commercial eutectic mixture of alkylcyclohexylcyanobenzenes and alkylcyclohexylcyanobiphenyl), EBBA [the N-(4-ethoxybenzylidene)-4(')-n-butylaniline], and in the zero average electric field gradient nematic mixture 55 wt% ZLI1132+EBBA (the so-called "magic" mixture). The orientations predicted by the model match almost perfectly the experimental Saupe matrices of the molecules dissolved in the "magic" mixture: implications of this result are discussed in terms of nature of the interactions in the different nematic phases and reliability and effectiveness of the suggested intermolecular potential. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.