Effect of the chain length on the thermal and analytical properties of laterally biforked nematogens.

Three laterally substituted liquid crystals were synthesized in order to investigate the effect of a lateral biforked chain on the thermal and analytical properties. The mesogenic molecules have the same core containing four aromatic rings connected by two ester and one diazo linkages, they differ by the length of one chain within the lateral biforked substituent. The phase transition temperatures were obtained by polarized light microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).