Liquid-Crystalline Properties of Alkyl 4-[2-(Perfluorooctyl)ethoxy]benzoates

This paper describes the liquid-crystalline properties of alkyl 4-[2-(perfluorooctyl)ethoxy]benzoates (1) and bromo (2) and nitro (3) substituted compounds. For 1, the lower members show a smectic A phase; also the smectic A-isotropic transition temperatures and the latent heats decrease with increasing the carbon number of the hydrocarbon chain. An X-ray examination indicated that the smectic A phase has an interdigited arrangement of molecules. The results are discussed in terms of inter- and intra-layer fluorophilic interactions around the perfluorooctyl groups.