Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.105, No.33, 7920-7927, 2001
P-31 and C-13 NMR studies of a liquid-crystalline cyclotriphosphazene derivative: Orientational characteristics and contrasting shielding anisotropies for inorganic and organic moieties
P-31 and C-13 NMR studies are reported for a smectic A liquid crystal of haxakis[4-dodecyl(4-biphenoxy)]-cyclotriphosphazene. In an intense magnetic field, the long axes of the biphenylene fragments and the alkyl chains align along the magnetic field, and the cyclotriphosphazene (ctp) ring-normal points preferentially in the same direction. Orientational order parameters for the inorganic moiety (ctp fragment) and that for the organic moiety (biphenylene fragment) are determined independently from the P-31 and C-13 NMR spectroscopies, respectively. The two order parameters are revealed to take the same value, 0.45. The value is smaller than that for the conventional smectic A liquid crystals consisting of small organic molecules. Contrasting chemical shift anisotropies are revealed for the motionally averaged fragments: the least-shielding axis for the 31P nucleus lies on the ctp ring normal, while that for the aromatic 13C nucleus lies along the line connecting the two phenylene rings.