Synthesis of Smectic Materials for Applications

Generally the applications of achiral smectic liquid crystals fall into three categories as follows  

Requirements for materials with strong positive dielectric anisotropies for storage applications are usually met by the availability of the 4-alkyl and 4-alkoxy-4 -cyano-biphenyls. The syntheses of these materials have been discussed in the above sections and so will not be discussed further in this section. The demands of ferroelectric and antiferroelectric applications, however, require that the syntheses of host systems are discussed in more detail. 

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The synthesis of nonchiral smectic liquid crystals is a broad topic for discussion, however, it can be divided into subsections in two different ways. For example, smectic systems can be split into metallomesogens and nonmetallomesogens, alternatively, they can be divided into materials for (1) meso-phase structure elucidation and classification [ 1 ], (2) property-structure correlations [2] and (3) host systems for ferroelectric and antiferroelectric mixtures. In the following sections template structures used for the synthesis of smectic materials will be described, followed by discussions of the syntheses of materials that have extensive histories in the elucidation of smectic phase structures, and finally of the syntheses of smectogens that are useful in applications. 

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