Discotic Liquid Crystals of Transition Metal Complexes 33: Spontaneous Uniform Homeotropic Alignment and Unique Mesophase Transition Behavior of Bis[2,3,9,10,16,17,23,24-octakis(3,4-dialkoxyphenoxy)phthalocyaninato]lutetium(III) Complexes

Novel discotic liquid crystalline bis[2,3,9,10,16,17,23,24-octakis(3,4-dialkoxyphenoxy)phthalocyaninato]lutetium(III) complexes, {[(CnO)2PhO]8Pc}2Lu (n = 12: 5a and n = 13: 5b), were synthesized. Their mesomorphic properties were investigated using polarization microscopy, DSC, and temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction techniques. These Lu complexes exhibited a very unique mesophase transition sequence of Colh → Cub1 → Cub2 → Coltet. In Coltet, a monodomain spontaneous homeotropic alignment could be achieved. Moreover, they showed two Cub phases, which is the first example of phthalocyanine-based discotic liquid crystals. The electrochemical property of 5a was also estimated by cyclic voltummetry.