Microwave-assisted facile synthesis of liquid-crystalline alkoxycyanobiphenyls and their dimers

Abstract

An efficient, simple, rapid, and economically and environmentally acceptable microwave-assisted ‘green chemistry’ approach to the synthesis of various liquid crystalline alkoxycyanobiphenyls and their dimers is reported. The protocol provides high yields of all the products. While the phase transition temperatures of monomers were found to be identical with literature data, the phase transition temperatures of all the dimers were found to be slightly higher than the reported values and thus demonstrate the cleanness of the procedure.

Keywords:

• Nematic liquid crystals
• Cyanobiphenyls
• Dimers
• Green chemistry
• Microwave-assisted organic reactions