KCS

The design, synthesis, and characterization of a bent-core liquid crystal mesogen possessing an untilted, ferroelectric banana phase are presented.  The goal of this project is production of a material with the SmA – SmAP_F phase sequence, in order to explore the properties in both of these phases for phase-only modulation applications.  The design of this structure is taken from the observations reported by Reddy and Sadashiva that a SmAP_A phase is produced alkoxy-cyanophenylbenzoates analogous to 1 [Reddy, R. A.; Sadashiva, B. K. J. Mater. Chem. 2004, 14, 310-319], combined with the well-known tendency toward anticlinic layer interfaces provided by the presence of carbosilanes or siloxanes at the end of mesogen tails, possibly by suppression of out of layer fluctuations.