Effect of the position and number of chiral carbons on ferroelectric liquid crystals from multichain mononuclear ortho-palladated complexes

A series of twelve mononuclear ortho-palladated complexes incorporating a Schiff base and a beta-diketone ligand have been synthesised. These compounds have four nonequivalent terminal chain positions and differ in the number and position(s) of chiral chains [(R)-2-methylheptyl] in the structure. A study of the ferroelectric properties of the compounds has been performed. It is found that the spontaneous polarisation is highly dependent not only on the number of chiral carbons present, but also on the position within the molecular core.