Lateral fluoro-substitution driven molecular packing difference in a series of pyridinium-based chiral ionic liquid crystals

A series of pyridinium-based chiral ionic liquid crystals (ILCs) and the intermediated, non-ionic ones (NILCs), were designed and synthesised. All ILCs exhibit enantiotropic SmA phases, while all NILCs exhibit enantiotropic cholesteric and SmA phases. In addition, few of NILCs and ILCs exhibit enantiotropic SmC* phases. Due to the Coulombic force, the clearing points of the ILCs are higher than those of the corresponding NILCs. For ILCs, the lateral fluoro-substitution not only decreases the clearing points, but also drives the formation of bilayer molecular packing structures at the smectic phases.

Automated summary

This passage describes a series of newly designed and synthesized pyridinium-based chiral ionic liquid crystals and non-ionic substances, displaying different phases with some exhibiting special phases. Fluoro-substitution can affect clearing points and drive the formation of molecular structures.