The ferro-, ferri- and antiferro-electric properties of a series of novel 2- or 3-substituted-alkyl 4-(4'-dodecyloxybipheny1-4-carbonyloxy)-benzoate esters

This paper reports the synthesis of six chiral liquid crystalline 2- or 3-substituted-alkyl 4-(4'-dodecyloxybiphenyl-4-carbonyloxy) benzoates, their mesophase assignments and the phase transition temperatures. All six materials display S-A* followed by S-C* phases on cooling from their isotropic liquids. The magnitudes of switched tilt angle, spontaneous polarization, helical twist sense (L.H.) and direction of polarization (P-S(-)) are given for the S-C* phases. Close inspection of the S-C* phases revealed that for the six compounds, two showed a ferrielectric (S-C*) and an antiferroelectric (S-CA* subphase, two showed only a ferrielectric subphase and one showed only an antiferroelectric subphase. The field-dependent behaviour of the switched tilt angle of the ferrielectric and antiferroelectric phases of some of the compounds is also presented.