Thermotropic liquid crystals in the heterocyclic series (review)

The available literature data on mesomorphic compounds that contain heterorings are correlated, and a brief account of the general concepts of liquid crystals and their types and properties is given. The liquid crystal properties of mesogenic derivatives of six-membered nitrogen-containing heterocycles are compared with the properties of their benzene analogs. The chief requirement for the potentially mesogenic molecule, viz., a high degree of geometrical anisotropy is illustrated in the case of five-membered and condensed heterocycles.Translated from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 1, pp. 3–18, January, 1980.