The performance of guest-host type liquid crystal displays (LCDs) is governed by the solubility and dissolution stability of dichroic dyes in the liquid crystal medium in guest-host kind of LCDs. The solubility and stability is influenced by hydrogen-bonding between the dye and the liquid crystal host. An earlier work was carried out to study the hydrogen-bonding behavior of 4-pentyl-4'-cyanobiphenyl (5CB) (liquid crystal), benzonitrile. and acetonitrile, with 1-hexanol in CCl4 using FTIR spectroscopy, ab initio and equation of state calculations [Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 42 (2003) 1129]. To gain further thermodynamic understanding, hydrogen-bonding behavior of 5CB (liquid crystal), benzonitrile, and acetonitrile. with a dichroic dye Disperse Red 1 (DR1) {2-[ethyl[4-[(4-nitrophenyl)azo]phenyl]amino]ethanol} in CCl4 were studied in this work. In all three mixtures, -OH acts as a hydrogen-bond donor and -CN acts as hydrogen-bond acceptor. Based on FTIR analysis for DR1/acetonitrile, DR1/benzonitrile, and DR1/5CB, the enthalpies of hydrogen-bond formation are -24.2, -23.7, and -3.7 kJ/mol. respectively; and the entropies of hydrogen-bond formation are -58.9, -58.1, and -0.4 J/(mol K), respectively. Though, for DR1/5CB. enthalpy of H-bonding is not too negative, the entropy of H-bonding is more favorable; hence the H-bonding appears to be entropically driven. Lattice fluid hydrogen-bonding (LFHB) parameters obtained from the spectroscopic data were observed to match well with the experimental trends. LFHB equation of state was then used to predict hydrogen-bonding for a wider range of conditions. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.