Structure and properties of the smectic phase in a mesogenic complex of copper with a schiff base

The structural arrangement and the structure of the mesogenic copper compound {C₇H₁₅O-C₆H₃(O)CH-C₆H₄OC₈H₁₇}₂Cu(II) were investigated in the dilute solution, the isotropic melt, the mesophase, and the crystalline state by ESR in conjunction with calorimetry and polarization microscopy. The complex exhibits smectic polymorphism with the following transitions: K 415 S_C 430 S_A 438 I. It was found by ESR that the complexes in the solution and in the isotropic melt have a square-planar trans configuration. In the mesophase part the planar molecules undergo tetrahedral distortion; the planar molecules form the smectic phase, while the distorted molecules are concentrated into microscopic isotropic drops, i.e., the system becomes heterogeneous in the mesophase. In the S_A S_C transition the mesophase is oriented anomalously in the magnetic field (compared with the diamagnetic analogs) with the director orthogonal to the direction of the field.Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Éksperimental'naya Khimiya, Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 370–375, May–June, 1988.