Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.570, No.1, 36-42, 2013
Synthesis and Characterization of a Novel Dimeric Liquid Crystalline Dendrimer
A liquid crystalline aryl ester dendrimer containing 1,4-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyloxy) butane as the core moiety was successfully synthesized through an efficient convergent synthetic approach. The polyester fragment was synthesized through a process involving the condensation of 4-(dodecyloxy) benzoic acid with 2,2,2-trichloroethyl-3,5-dihydroxybenzoate. The coupling step was followed by removal of the 2,2,2-trichloroethyl ester group with zinc acetic acid. Characterization of all the synthesized compounds was carried out using spectroscopy methods. The thermal behavior of the acid dendritic wedges and the aryl ester dendrimer was investigated by differential scanning calorimetery and polarizing optical microscopy. Optical microscopy showed a focal-conic texture characteristic of the smectic A phase for novel dimeric dendrimer.