1,3,5-Triazine(trithiophenylcarboxylate) esters form metastable monotropic nematic discotic liquid crystal phases

ABSTRACTConformationally flexible cores that generate large free volume when stacked and have an insufficient number of side-chains for filling the lateral space around each core have been proposed as design criteria for discotic liquid crystals that display nematic rather than columnar mesophases. Presented here are 1,3,5-triazines substituted with three thiophene carboxylate ester groups that fulfil these design criteria. Nine derivatives with linear, branched, and chiral ester chains were synthesised and their mesomorphism was studied by polarised optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and powder x-ray diffraction. Triazines with linear propyl to octyl chains display monotropic nematic discotic mesophases that crystallise within hours or days or when mechanically agitated. Packing structures for the nematic phases are proposed based on the single crystal structure of the ethyl ester. Their unusually slow nucleation and crystal growth can be attributed to the large number of possible low...