Nematic liquid crystals are extremely sensitive to optically active molecules, which, at very low concentration, convert them into cholesteric liquid crystals. The purpose of this report is to review recent applications of liquid crystals to chirality studies. A brief discussion of the structure and properties of liquid crystals is followed by a survey of the methods currently being employed for the determination of the pitch and handedness of cholesteric liquid crystals. Of special interest in the formation of induced-cholesteric phases are the twisting powers of optically active compounds and the structural relationships between dopants and nematics. Liquid crystals can be used, inter alia, for the detection of small optical activities and for the determination of thermal racemization barriers and absolute configurations.

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The helical structure of the chiral nematic phases induced by chiral dopants in nematic solvents provides a macroscopic image of the molecular chirality of the dopant promoted by the orientational order. Chiral biphenyls are challenging systems because their twisting ability shows a strong dependence on the molecular structure, which does not conform to empirical correlation rules. This points out the need for adequate interpretative tools, able to establish a link between molecular properties and macroscopic response. In this paper the twisting ability of chiral biphenyls is reviewed, by reporting examples taken from the literature together with some new experimental results. The microscopic origin of the observed behavior is explained in terms of chirality and anisotropy of short-range and electrostatic-induction interactions. These are described, respectively, by a shape model and a reaction field method, having the common characteristics of a realistic representation of the structure and properties of the chiral dopants in terms of molecular surface, atom charges, and distributed polarizabilities.

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