ABSTRACT
New five-ring hockey-stick liquid crystalline materials with 4-bromoresorcinol as the central core unit and an azobenzene-based side arm were synthesised and their mesophase behaviour was investigated by polarising optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction and under a triangular wave electric field. Additional structural modification was done by introducing a lateral fluorine atom in the terminal ring of one of the side arms. It is found that regardless of the alkyl chain length or the lateral fluorine substitution, all of the prepared materials are liquid crystalline exhibiting nematic phases composed of cybotactic clusters of the SmC-type (NCybC) in addition to a monotropic SmC phase for the longest homologue.
GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
![](/cms/asset/869e1f94-a023-4e07-985d-0c93418cadbd/tlct_a_1236419_uf0001_oc.jpg)
Acknowledgment
The work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [Grant Ts 39/24-1].
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
supplemental data
The supplemental data for this article can be accessed here