Role of New Chiral Additives on Physical-Chemical Properties of the Nematic Liquid Crystal Matrix.

We have synthesized and studied three new chiral substances as additives to a nematic liquid crystal. The difference in the optical activity and chemical structure of additive molecules results in the appearance of the chiral nematic phase and the change in both the compatibility of the mixture components and temperature range of the liquid crystal phase. The role of additives with fundamentally different structures and optical activities is shown.

Novel Mesogenic Vinyl Ketone Monomers and Their Based Polymers.

In the present research, we have synthesized new vinyl ketone monomers with mesogenic substituents, namely, 8-(3'-chloro-4'-pentyl-[1,1'-biphenyl-4-oxy)oct-1-en-3-one () and 8-[2'-chloro-4‴-octyl-[1,1':4',1″:4″,1‴-quaterphenyl-4-oxy]oct-1-en-3-one (). The comparison of , , and previously synthesized 8-((4″-(()-4-butylcyclohexyl)-2'-chloro-[1,1',4',1″-terphenyl]-4-yl)oxy)oct-1-en-3-one () has revealed that all of them are able to form crystals, while their ability to exhibit liquid crystalline behavior depends on the number of phenyl substituents attached to the para-position of the phenoxy group and is observed for and only. All of the monomers are able to achieve self-polymerization upon heating and free radical polymerization in bulk or in solution under the action of the common radical initiator AIBN.