Novel triphenylenoimidazole discotic liquid crystals

A novel discotic core was constructed by fusing imidazole unit with well-known triphenylene discotic core. Two new imidazole fused unsymmetrically substituted triphenylene derivatives were prepared and characterized. While the molecular structures of the new compounds were verified by ¹H NMR, UV, MS and elemental analysis, their liquid crystalline properties were determined by polarizing optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction studies. These triphenylenoimidazole derivatives were found to exhibit hexagonal columnar mesomorphism over a wide temperature range.