Liquid-Crystalline Derivatives of S-3,7-dimethyloctan-1-ol

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Abstract
A wide variety of liquid-crystalline derivatives of S-β-citronellol (S-3,7-dimethyloct-6-ene-1-ol) were prepared and found to exhibit ferroelectric smectic phases. The S-β-citronellol was initially hydrogenated to produce S-3,7-dimethyloctan-1-ol (3M7M8OH). This in turn was either brominated, oxidized, or used in an unchanged form to synthesize a range of materials, many of which exhibited smectic C* phases. The magnitude of the spontaneous polarization for a number of these derivatives was measured. Generally, the materials reported were found to have values for their spontaneous polarizations in the range of 5 to 15 nCcm−2. Many of the materials were also found to have short helical pitches in their C* phases, making them useful as unwinding agents in ferroelectric mixtures.