Molecular Interactions in Chiral Nematic Liquid Crystals and Enantiotopic Discrimination through the NMR Spectra of Achiral Molecules I: Rigid Solutes

We have developed a molecular theory for the enantiotopic discrimination in prochiral solutes dissolved in chiral nematic solvents by means of NMR spectroscopy. The leading rank tensor contributions to the proposed potential of mean torque include symmetric as well as antisymmetric terms with respect to spatial inversion, these lead to a consistent determination of all the prochiral solute symmetries for which enantiotopes are distinguishable by NMR and also to excellent quantitative agreement when tested against the available experimental data for the rigid solute acenaphthene and for the moderately flexible ethanol.