Room-Temperature Oligomeric Discotic Nematic Liquid Crystals over a Wide Temperature Range: Structure–Property Relationships

Abstract

The design and synthesis of three room-temperature discotic nematic (ND) liquid crystals (LCs) is presented. The LC consists of an azobenzene core attached to which are four pentaalkynylbenzene (PA) units through flexible alkyl spacers. The presence of a short azo linking group provides more disorder in the system, thereby reducing the packing efficiency among the PA units and resulting into the formation of a room-temperature ND phase over a wide temperature range. Dielectric constant and birefringence studies were performed to gain further insights into the physical properties of the mesophase.