Abstract
Optically active phenoxypropionates having a variety of cores were synthesized and the effect of the different core structures on the spontaneous polarization (Ps) values was investigated. The results indicate that the core structure has a great influence on the Ps value and compound 3 in which a chiral group attached to the 5-phenyl side of the 2,5-diphenylpyrimidine core showed the largest Ps of 240 nC/cm2. The ability as a chiral dopant for ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) were also evaluated. It was found that compound 3 was the most interesting, because the doping of compound 3 induced large Ps and wide tilt angle and this FLC mixture showed short response time. Moreover, the Sc range of host liquid crystal mixture are slightly extended by doping of compound 3.