Control of single crystal structure and liquid crystal phase behaviour via arene–perfluoroarene interactions†

Abstract

In contrast to the solid-state structures of the individual compounds, arene-perfluoroarene face-to-face stacking and C–H‥F–C in-plane interactions dominate the solid-state structure of 1∶1 co-crystals of 1,4-bis(phenylethynyl)-tetrafluorobenzene 1b and 1,4-bis(pentafluorophenylethynyl)- benzene 1c, with this supramolecular aggregation leading to the stabilisation of a nematic liquid crystalline phase.