Monosubstituted Ferrocene-Containing Thermotropic Liquid Crystals

This chapter describes the influence of micromolecular structure on selfassembly macroscopic properties of liquid crystalline ordered systems and focuses on structure-properties relationships of some thermotropic monosubstituted ferrocenomesogens obtained in our research group. The structural features evaluated are the connectivity between ferrocene and mesogenic units, the number of aromatic rings and the types of linking and ending groups responsible for mesomorphic behavior. It is shown that systems based on monosubstituted ferrocene derivatives exhibit unique liquid crystalline properties which may be used for designing materials with specific functions and properties. The aim of this paper is to present essentially the work carried out in our laboratory over a period of 10 years therefore; this chapter will focus on the main conclusions drawn on our own synthesized ferrocenomesogens.

Keywords: Anisotropic molecular structure, Azobenzene, Azo-aromatic compounds, Calamitic, Cholesteryl esters, Cholesteric mesophases, Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Ferrocene, Ferrocenomesogens, Flexible aliphatic chains, Metallomesogens, Molecular modelling, Multifunctional materials, Nematic, Optical polarized microscopy (OPM), Schiff Bases, Smectic, Structure - mesomorphic properties relationship, Thermotropic liquid crystals, Thermal degradation.