Thermodynamic stability and phase behaviour of a liquid crystalline material: a theoretical model at molecular level

This article describes the thermodynamic stability and phase behaviour of a liquid crystalline material p-n-hexyloxybenzylidene-p-toluidine (6OBT) at a molecular level. The atomic net charge and dipole moment at each atomic centre have been evaluated using the complete neglect differential overlap (CNDO/2) method. The modified Rayleigh–Schrodinger perturbation method along with multicentred-multipole expansion method has been employed to evaluate the long-range intermolecular interactions, while a ‘6-exp’ potential function has been assumed for the short-range interactions. The total interaction energy values obtained through these computations have been used to calculate the probability of each configuration at room temperature (300?K), nematic–isotropic transition temperature (346.9?K) and above transition temperature (400?K) using the Maxwell–Boltzmann formula. Further, the Helmholtz free energy and entropy of each configuration has been computed during the different modes of interactions. An attempt has been made to understand the phase behaviour and stability of the molecule based on thermodynamic parameters introduced in this article.