Lyomesomorphic behaviour of selected di-palladium organyls in hydrocarbons

The lyotropic phase behaviour of selected lath-like di-palladium organyls and of an almost linear one in mixtures with linear, saturated or cyclic, unsaturated hydrocarbons has been studied. The ratio of the length of the aliphatic chains of the metal complexes vs. the length of the respective solvent molecules appeared to be important for the mesomorphism of such binary mixtures. During this study it became clear that the formation of lyotropic phases is controlled in two ways: 1) by the thermomesomorphic behaviour of the pure material being preserved in apolar organic solvents used here or 2) by the influence such solvents have on the development of different architectures of them. As an example for one case of the first family X-ray data are included. Beyond that, further details of a first case of lyotropic twisted nematic (N*) phase formation in a binary system composed of a non-chiral di-palladium organyl and a chiral hydrocarbon, (R)-(+)-limonene, are also reported.