Perturbation theory for discotic nematic liquid crystals of axially symmetric molecules: effect of dispersion interaction

Abstract

We investigate the influence of dispersion interaction on a variety of thermodynamic properties of discotic nematic liquid crystals at the discotic nematic-isotropic transition. We report calculations for a hard oblate ellipsoidal system, superposed with an attractive interaction represented by dispersion interaction subjected to different external pressures ranging from 1 to 300 bar. We consider a model system (which simulates a discotic nematic liquid crystal) in which molecules are assumed to interact via a pair potential having both repulsive and attractive parts. The repulsion part is represented by a repulsion between hard oblate ellipsoids of revolution and is a short range, rapidly varying potential. The attractive potential, a function of centre of mass distance and relative orientation between two molecules, is represented by dispersion interaction. The properties of the reference system and first order perturbation term are evaluated using a decoupling approximation which decouples orientational from translational degrees of freedom. The inclusion of fourth and sixth rank orientational order parameters in the calculation slightly improves the result. The role of pressure on phase transition parameters has also been studied.