Molecular alignment of biphenyl derivatives -a computational analysis

Molecular alignment of some biphenyl derivatives likes 4'-Nitro-2-biphenylamine (NBPA), 4-Acetyl-3'-chlorobiphenyl (ACBP) and 4-Acetyl-3'-florobiphenyl (AFBP) has been examined. The CNDO/2 method has been employed to compute the net atomic charge and atomic dipole-moment components at each atomic centre. Configurational energy has been computed using a modified Rayleigh- Schrodinger perturbation method at an interval of 0.1 A° in translation and 1° in rotation, and corresponding probabilities have been calculated using MB-statistics. A comparative study of molecular parameters like the total energy, the binding energy and the total dipole moment etc., has been made. On the basis of the stacking and the in-plane interaction energy calculations, all the possible geometrical arrangements between molecular pairing have been obtained. The investigation suggests that a strong intermolecular interaction energy between a pair of NBPA molecules, and the specific minimum energy configuration, determines the alignment of molecules with respect to one another. An attempt has been made to correlate the liquid crystalline properties exhibited by this class of molecules, and thereby develop a molecular model for the liquid crystallinity.