A tritium nuclear magnetic resonance study is carried out on the ${\mathrm{T}}_2$, HT, and DT isotopomers of dihydrogen dissolved in various nematic phases, including a zero-electric-field-gradient mixture. Ab initio calculations are performed to reproduce the observed dipolar couplings. Within the framework of the ``mean-field'' approximation, the results provide support for a picture in which two independent contributions to the solute orientation can be distinguished. One contribution involves a liquid-crystal-dependent interaction between the mean solvent electric-field gradient and the solute molecular quadrupole moment. The other contribution is of unknown origin; however, it is essentially identical in all liquid crystals and it can be modeled adequately with a phenomenological mean-field interaction. A remarkable feature of this second interaction is that it causes the average orientation of the asymmetrical isotopomers, and especially of HT, to behave differently from the symmetrical species.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.55.496