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Abstract
The decyl ester hydrochlorides of the amino acids serine, alanine, leucine, methionine and methyl cysteine are accessed as chiral dopants in amphiphilic cholesteric liquid crystal formation. The sense and magnitude of the induced helical twist is found to be dependent on the achiral host detergent, which were various alkyl-methyl ammonium bromide salts. The results are interpreted in terms of the trans and cis rotamers associated with the ester linkage. 13C-NMR is used to measure the rotamer populations. Each rotamer makes an opposite but an unequal contribution to the total twist. The results for the serine ester did not fit this interpretation completely.