Liquid Crystalline Properties of Substituted Azo- and Azoxy-benzenes. I

In order to obtain low-temperature mesomorphic materials, thirty-two p-alkyl-p′-alkoxy-azo- and -azoxybenzenes have been synthesized. The former have been made by the condensation of p-n-alkylnitrosobenzenes and p-n-alkoxyanilines, and the latter, by the oxidation of the former. Twenty-nine of the compounds show nematic behavior. In the majority of cases, the nematic temperature range of the azoxy compounds, which have been considered to consist of two isomers synthesized simultaneously, is appreciably wide.