Chemical structures, mesogenic properties, and synthesis of liquid crystals with bent-core structures

Abstract

Bent-core liquid crystals are currently an interdisciplinary research field that is properly established. For this achievement, chemists have focused their efforts on the design and synthesis of a wide variety of bent-shaped compounds with fairly different chemical structures, either of low molecular weight or of diverse macromolecules. All these investigations have provided significant information on the chemical structure-mesomorphic properties for this type of compound, revealing that, through subtle intermolecular interactions, a large variety of fascinating nematic, lamellar, and columnar liquid-crystalline organizations can be induced, and even combined, with classical mesophases. As it is stressed throughout this chapter, this capability can be modulated and controlled by the appropriate selection and connection of the three basic structural units in bent-shaped mesogens: the central bent-core and the rodlike peripheral moiety, both forming the bent-shaped basic structure of these molecules, and the terminal substituents or chains. The great versatility of design that offers these somewhat nonconventional mesogens might be exploited not only to investigate the basic structure-activity relationships but also to achieve precise functional properties in the route to smart and functional materials.