Banana-shaped dopants for flexoelectric nematic mixtures

Abstract

The synthesis is reported of new meta-substituted quaterphenyls and several related dimers as dopants for nematic mixtures with flexoelectric properties. The number and nature of the terminal substituents is varied from apolar with a small dipole moment to polar with a strong dipole moment. The number of methylene units in the flexible aliphatic spacer between the polyfluorinated aromatic groups of the dimers is also varied. Dimers capable of banana-shaped conformers induce an increase in the flexoelectric coefficients of mixtures containing them and reduce the clearing point to a small extent. © 2008 Taylor & Francis.