Terminal Fluorinated Nitroxide Radical Liquid Crystalline Compounds.

We have synthesized a new series of all-organic paramagnetic liquid crystalline (LC) compounds, which include a five-membered ring nitroxide radical (NR) moiety in the mesogen core and fluorine atoms as terminal substituents. These new compounds are the structural analogs of the previously reported NR-LC compounds, and showed remarkable fluorine substituent effects. The introducing fluorine atom into terminal unit stabilizes nematic phase. However, an excess of fluorination leads to the destabilization of nematic phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]