Born to be a Liquid Crystal: The role of fluorinated chain in the design and synthesis of new mesogens

The title of this article is devoted to the collection of compounds synthesized in this work, in which all the molecules had an astonished performance as "characters of a scientific movie" about liquid crystals (LCs). Just like movie stars, all compounds synthesized have shone magnificently on the LCs stage. The plot of this movie was designed by preparing 3,5-diarylisoxazoles carrying a semi-perfluorinated alkyl chain and a polar-terminated one with flexible spacer group. From the beginning to the end of the synthetic route, all the intermediates and the products exhibited smectic mesophases. The performance as LCs actors was analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and polarized optical microscopy (POM). The cohesive energy density (CED) was calculated for some of them to analyze the effects of microphase segregation on mesomorphic behavior. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.