Abstract

A molecular description of the mesomorphic behaviour of globular supermolecules of radial dendritic architecture is presented. It is based on coarse grained structural and conformational features, namely, anisometry of the overall shape, submolecular partitioning of the interactions and non-convexity of the supermolecular surface. The relevance of these features to conformational phase transitions, orientational ordering, layering and microsegregation phenomena in ordered fluid phases is studied using density functional theory of deformable bodies and Monte Carlo simulations of rigid fan molecules. Orientationally ordered and layered phases are found, both in theory and simulation, even in the absence of significant overall shape anisometry.