Symmetrical liquid crystalline dimers containing azo and azomethine linkages: synthesis, characterisation, mesomorphic study and DFT studies.

In the current study, one new series of symmetrical liquid crystalline homologous series of dimers with a rigid aromatic core with azo and azomethine group were synthesized using an ether-linking group. Several spectroscopic methods, including FT-IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and elemental analysis, were used to describe the synthesised dimers. The differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and polarised optical microscopy (POM) were used to assess their mesomorphic properties. The results showed that the number of methylene spacers significantly affected the thermal properties of the synthesized dimers. To ascertain photophysical behaviour, UV-visible spectroscopy was employed. All the dimers of the present series show excellent enantiotropic nematic mesophase. The relationships between structure and its mesogenic property, the effects of various flexible spacers, the mesophase ranges, and the photo-isomerization of liquid crystalline dimers were all investigated. DFT study was carried out to gain a better understanding of structural features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]