Mesogenic ketohexose and aldopentose derivatives: anomalous behaviour of the alkyl D-fructopyranosides

The thermotropic and lyotropic behaviour of a number of alkyl ketopyranosides, alkyl ketofuranosides, an alkyl pentopyranoside and an alkyl pentofuranoside were studied. With the exception of the alkyl beta-D-fructopyranosides, all the compounds display the expected smectic A* phases. The three alkyl fructopyranoside homologues studied (octyl, decyl and dodecyl) display a novel, rather viscous mesophase (monotropic), the nature of which is as yet unclear. The unknown phase is not a smectic A phase, because a phase transition from smectic A* to phase X is observed for both the decyl and the dodecyl derivative. The lyotropic behaviour of all the compounds in this study is quite similar to that reported earlier for other monoalkylated monosaccharide derivatives, except that the unknown phase X is again observed for the fructopyranoside derivatives.