On the molecular and mesophase structures of disc-like tetrapalladium liquid crystals

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Abstract
Various members of two series of μ-halogeno-bridged tetrapalladium mesogens each with twelve dodecyloxy chains, but differing in the size of their large disc-like macroheterocyclic cores, 1 a-e and 2a-c, as well as one new short-chained homologue (1 c') of one of the series, as a model compound for single crystal X-ray studies, are presented. Our results on that model compound again unambiguously confirm earlier statements about the unique molecular structure of the core of these flat tetrapalladium complexes. The properties of all thermomesogenic compounds have been studied by differential scanning calorimetry, polarizing microscopy, and also by X-ray diffraction; the latter method reveals an oblique arrangement of disordered columns in most of the mesophases exhibited by the members of both series 1 and 2.