The objective of this program was to study the effects of the chemical structure of liquid crystal components on the anisotropic properties of nematic mixtures, especially in regard to their electro-optical response characteristics. The program was particularly aimed at obtaining a better understanding of the effects of components on the DS mode. A similar, secondary goal was to study the effects of structure on the VGM in some of the same nematic mixtures. We chose to study ester LCs in this program because of our prior experience with phenyl benzoate LCs and dopants for DS effects. The phenyl benzoate ester mixtures are of particular interest for DS because they are colorless and relatively stable to moisture, they can be formulated to have a negative dielectric anisotropy, they can be adequately purified for controlled doping, and they show good dc stability when used with redox dopants. In this program we have examined the properties and effects of many different types of ester LC components, including cyclohexanecarboxylates, biphenylcarboxylates, benzoylaoxybenzoates, acyloxybenzoates, and thiobenzoates, as well as various benzoate structures.