Abstract

New liquid crystals based on calixarenes (7 and 8) were prepared by the reaction of calixarene, tert-butylcalix[8]arene and C-methyloctakis(2-hydroxyethyl)calix[4]resorcinarene, and 11-[(4′-cyano-1,1′-biphenyl-4-yl)oxy]undecanoyl chloride in the presence of triethylamine. The structures of 7 and 8 were characterized by IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, and MALDI-TOF mass spectroscopies. Compounds 7 and 8 had glass transitions at approximately –30 and 25 °C, respectively. Both of them exhibited smectic liquid crystals. Compound 8 was found to adopt a specific molecular structure due to the rigid bowl calix[4]resorcinarene core, i.e., a cone-like structure with mesogenic units aligned within the molecule. Moreover, the smectic A phase of 8 was transformed to nematic. The supercooling of 8 for the phase transition was very small due to the molecular structure.