The ferroelectric and liquid-crystalline properties of some chiral alkyl 4-n-alkanoyloxybiphenyl-4′-carboxylates

Abstract

A variety of chiral esters of a range 4-n-alkanoyloxybiphenyl-4′-carboxylic acids have been 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.