Computational Study of Structure and Stability in Supramolecular Liquid Crystals

Abstract

In this project, we used computational modeling to investigate the intermolecular forces in a liquid crystal system. We calculated the structure and energies of molecules and supramolecular complexes. This was to explain the experimentally observed trend in the phase transition temperatures of the liquid crystal. Synthesis and characterization of the liquid crystals were conducted by colleagues in the Wiegel research group at UW--Eau Claire.