Synthesis and properties of fluorine tail-terminated cyanobiphenyls and terphenyls for chemoresponsive liquid crystals |
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| Authors: | Kunlun Wang Prabin Rai Ashani Fernando Tibor Szilvási Huaizhe Yu Nicholas L. Abbott |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA;2. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA;3. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA |
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| Abstract: | ABSTRACTA series of fluorine tail-terminated alkoxy and alkyl cyanobiphenyl compounds and some cyano-p-terphenyl derivatives were synthesised and mesogenic properties described. Comparison with the non-fluorinated K series and M series indicates that the terminal fluorine atom generally decreases the transition temperatures and, more interestingly, depresses the formation of a smectic phase. Several binary LC mixtures formed by the fluorine tail-terminated compounds were found exhibiting promising room temperature nematic phases with wide ranges. The mixture F7OCB and F8OCB shows homeotropic ordering at the metal salts-decorated surfaces and planar ordering at the free surface, which may have potential application in designing a more sensitive and faster LC system to targeted analytes. |
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| Keywords: | Fluorine tail-terminated cyanobiphenyls chemoresponsive nematic phase |
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