Synthesis of Fluorine-Containing Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals

Abstract

Abstract Ferroelectric liquid crystals having a fluorine atom at an asymmetric carbon were synthesized by means of a new method without hydrofluoric acid. An amino acid, L-isoleucine, is converted to (R,S)-α-fluorinated chiral carboxylic acid. Biphenyl and triphenyl type liquid crystals are easily synthesized using this fluorinated carboxylic acid, which show a large spontaneous polarization of 200 nC/cm2 for the biphenyl type and 300 nC/cm2 for the triphenyl type. The electro-optic properties of the mixtures consisting of the chiral compound and various non-chiral smectic C (SmC) compounds are also described.