Liquid crystalline behaviours of some 3-perfluoroalkylbenzoate esters

A series of 3-perfluoroalkylbenzoate esters are synthesised. They tend to exhibit enantiotropic SmA and SmC phases. The clearing points are decreased with increasing the alkoxy chain length and show odd-even effect. With increasing the fluorocarbon chain length, the melting and clearing points increase; however, the SmC phase is suppressed.