The great majority of liquid crystalline phases are exhibited by molecules with rod-like or disc-like shapes (calamitics and discotics). Despite considerable theoretical interest, small-molecule board-like liquid crystals are very rare, and those that have been reported often (but not always) exhibit the columnar stacking characteristic of discotics.1,2 These so-called sanidics have considerable potential as functional materials for high performance light modulators or organic semiconductors if certain phases can be realized (notably biaxial nematic and biaxial smectic A phases). We have been exploring a design strategy based on the planarization of ortho-phenylenes to yield short, graphene-like strips.3 The first members of this series, functionalized dibenzo[fg,op]naphthacenes, yield phases characteristic of calamitics but with observable differences attributable to the board-like shapes of the molecules. Recent structure-property results will be discussed.(1) Artal, M.; Toyne, K.; Goodby, J.; Barbera, J.; Photinos, D. J. Mater. Chem. 2001 , 11, 2801�2807.(2) Ghedini, M.; Aiello, I.; Crispini, A.; Golemme, A.; La Deda, M.; Pucci, D. Coord. Chem. Rev. 2006 , 250, 1373�1390.(3) He, J.; Agra-Kooijman, D. M.; Singh, G.; Wang, C.; Dugger, C.; Zeng, J.; Zang, L.; Kumar, S.; Hartley, C. S. J. Mater. Chem. C 2013 , 1, 5833�5836.

New board-like small-molecule liquid crystals based on dibenzo[<i>fg</i>,<i>op</i>]naphthacenes

248th National Meeting (2014)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.

New board-like small-molecule liquid crystals based on dibenzo[fg,op]naphthacenes