Photosensitive phasmid-like liquid crystalline materials with unusual mesomorphic behavior
Abstract
We report on the synthesis and mesomorphic properties of five new series of azo functionalized phasmid-like compounds formed by covalent bonding. They consist of both symmetric and non-symmetric molecules. Most of these compounds are found to be liquid crystalline, with unusual behavior. They exhibit mainly nematic, columnar and smectic mesophases. In addition to these phases, in few cases, we observed some higher order mesophases as well. The nature of these mesophases is investigated by