| The structure in chiral fluids of particles of arbitrary shape is explored in this thesis. While allowance is made in the theory for molecules of any shape, we focus on polar ellipsoidal particles. In isotropic phase, the fluid structure is obtained from the molecule-based hypernetted chain theory (HNC) which has been applied, for the first time, to racemates. Discrimination, as measured by the difference between like-like(LL) and like-unlike(LU) radial distributions, is assessed for a large number of racemates, under varied conditions. We investigate eighteen racemates with hard ellipsoidal cores that vary in shape from elongated, to nearly spherical, to flattened, at three temperatures and three densities. We find that elongated molecules show discrimination most readily with differences of up to 30% between the LL and LU distributions. Flattened molecules also show some discrimination but the magnitude depends strongly on the orientation of the molecular dipole.; The competition between achiral and chiral interactions is explored for racemates. The molecule-based hypernetted chain theory which has been applied previously to hard chiral molecules is modified to properly describe any strongly anisotropic potential. Since differences between like-like and like-unlike interaction potentials are typically short ranged, achiral interactions have the potential to increase discrimination by enhancing the probability of close contact, where the differences in the chiral potential are largest. On the other hand, if achiral interactions are dominant, then little discrimination is expected. We find that the inclusion of achiral interactions usually, but not always, reduces discrimination.; A general formalism is developed for nematic phase investigations. In this case, the fluid is homogeneous, but anisotropic. The higher generality of the formalism leads to a more complex generalized spherical harmonics expansion, and a larger number of coefficients in the expansion than needed for isotropic phase calculations. To add to this complexity, a second closure equation has to be incorporated [A. Perera, Phys. Rev. E, 60, 2912(1999)], to obtain the singlet angular distribution function. The formalism is applied to a fluid of dipolar ellipsoids in an external field. |
