Synthesis and characterisation of some novel banana and discotic liquid crystals

Abstract

Liquid crystals are observed in between ordered crystalline phase and disordered isotropic liquid phase and generally referred to as mesophases [1]. They display both the order and mobility at molecular, supramolecular and macroscopic levels. Liquid crystals have been accepted as the fourth state of matter after the three classical states of matter, solid, liquid and gas [2,3]. The self-healing and self-aligning ability of LCs can be smoothly constructed through weak interactions such as hydrogen bonding, van der Waals forces, π‒π stacking, dipolar or quadrupolar interactions, charge transfer interactions, molecular shape anisotropy, microsegregation of incompatible subunits, etc. The constituent molecules, referred to as mesogens, could be organic, inorganic or organometallic which form mesophases under appropriate conditions [4]. Liquid crystals are important class of functional materials which find immense applications in fundamental and applied sciences.