The ferroelectric and liquid-crystalline properties of some Chiral Alkyl 4-n-Alkanoyloxybiphenyl-4'-carboxylates.
01 January 1987
A variety of chiral esters of a range of 4-n-alkanoyloxybiphenyl -4'-carboxylic acids were prepared in order to produce three closely related homologous series of liquid-crystalline materials, The majority of the materials synthesized were found to exhibit smectic liquid-crystalline phases close to room-temperature. Many of these phases were also found to be ferroelectric. Moreover, the ferroelectric behaviour observed was found to be very unusual, and in the case of some materials a peculiar change in sign of the spontaneous polarization direction with temperature was detected.