Simplified scheme for deterministic synthesis of chiral-nematic glassy liquid crystals

Potentially useful for the fabrication of nonabsorbing polarizers, optical notch filters and reflectors, and polarized light sources, chiral-nematic glassy liquid crystals can be synthesized by a statistical or deterministic approach. A deterministic approach is characterized by the relative ease of product separation and purification and hence is more amenable to process scale-up. Prompted to minimize the effort involving protection and deprotection of functional groups, the present work has demonstrated the feasibility of reducing the number of synthesis steps from a previous synthesis scheme. The new methodology is widely applicable to the synthesis of a variety of right- and left-handed chiral-nematic glassy liquid crystals with desired phase transition temperatures.