We reported new ion conductive liquid crystalline materials by utilization of ionic conductivity of poly(ethylene oxide)s / alkali metal salts complexes and anisotropy of liquid crystals. For the further development of anisotropic ion conductors, stabilization of smectic phase structures in a wide range of temperature including room temperature is desirable. We focused on a fluorine-lithium ion interaction to stabilize the phases, and synthesized a fluorine-substituted mesogenic twin molecule containing oxyethylene spacers. Complexation of the compound with LiCF_3SO_3 induced a improved thermal stability of the smectic A phase, the degree of the positive deviation by the complexation was up to 100℃. In contrast, such stabilization was not observed for complexes of a homologous compound without the fluorine substituent. We attributed the significant mesophase stabilization to the interaction between fluorine atom and lithium cation. When the mesogenenic core of the complex formed a homeotropically aligned monodomain, the ionic conductivity along the layer of oxyethylene moiety became higher than that for the unaligned one. This result suggests that long range conductive paths have been formed in the complex.
