Synthesis and comparison of mesomorphic behaviour of a cholesterol-based liquid crystal dimer and analogous monomers

ABSTRACTOligo/polymerisation of known mesogens constitutes a highly efficient strategy in liquid crystal research due to its potential to generate novel liquid crystal materials with intriguing mesomorphic properties. Here we report the synthesis and comparative studies of a synthetic liquid crystal dimer and two of its monomer analogues. By incorporating cholesterol as the mesogenic group, we designed a flexible scaffold consisting of a hybrid of non-polar hydrophobic chain and polar tetraethylene glycol appended to the cholesteryl mesogens. Detailed studies showed that the two classes of mesogens exhibit the same type of liquid crystal phases with similar dimensions but their transition temperatures varied which can be effectively rationalised by the particular chemical functionalities present in each class of materials.