ABSTRACT
A series of calamitic biphenyl ester-aromatic imine derived from the reaction of 4-formylphenyl-4’-(alkyloxy)-[1,1’-biphenyl]-4-carboxylate and p-anisidine have been successfully synthesised and characterised. The general molecular structures of ultimate compounds show the central fragment made up by a hybrid core of biphenyl ester-aromatic imine in which the terminal alkoxy chains, CnH2n + 1 in which n = 7–12 were connected to biphenyl while the other end consists of methoxy moiety attached to a phenyl ring. All the target compounds under polarised lights exhibit enantiotropic nematic phase of which the temperature range was further supported by DSC analysis. It can be summarised that the lengthening of terminal alkoxy chains has contributed to the lowering of melting and clearing temperatures as well as the thermal stability of nematic phase. A dedicated magnetic characterisation analysis disclosed that apart from a dominant diamagnetic character these compounds possess a noticeable magnetic interaction despite knowing that the compounds belong to the non-metal and non-radical containing species.
Acknowledgments
The main author (G.-Y. Yeap) would like to thank Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia for Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS 2020-1) with Project Code: FRGS/1/2020/STG04/USM/01/2. All researchers are also grateful for the research funding under International Collaborative Research by Soka University (Japan).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02678292.2024.2321475