Ten isomeric five-ring bent-core mesogens: The influence of the direction of the carboxyl connecting groups on the mesophase behaviour

In order to study the role of the direction of the connecting groups in bent-core mesogens we synthesized two series of ten possible achiral isomeric five-ring bent-core compounds in which all aromatic rings are connected by ester groups and each of which possesses the same length of the terminal chains (octyloxy or dodecyloxy, respectively). The structure of the isomers is distinguished by the direction of at least one ester group, only. The mesophase behaviour of the compounds has been studied by polarizing microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray experiments and electro-optical measurements. We have found that in spite of the minor structural differences a variety of mesophases occur (SmCPA, Colrec, Colob) whereby the clearing temperatures vary from 121 to 193 °C (octyloxy isomers) and 112 to 189 °C (dodecyloxy isomers). Depending on the direction of the ester groups some of these isomers show interesting properties, such as field-induced inversion of chirality in SmCPA and columnar phases, the field-induced enhancement of the clearing temperature, a second-order phase transition Colob → SmCPA or the reversible field-induced phase transition Colob → SmCPF. The unexpectedly strong influence of the direction of the connecting groups is discussed on the base of theoretical calculations and molecular dynamics simulation on isolated molecules.