Bifurcated-tail chiral fluorinated organosiloxane liquid crystalline materials

The synthesis and characterization of a series of chiral fluorinated low molar mass (bifurcated tail) organosiloxane materials is presented. The mesogenic moiety is similar to that in the TSiKN65F mesogen reported by Naciri et al., which displays a de Vries-type S_A ^* phase. The one parameter varied across the series reported herein is the length of the alkyl chain linking the mesogen moiety to the bifurcated siloxane tail.