Abstract
As a part of our continuing effort to clarify the structure-property relationship for metal-salicylaldimine mesogens, series of copper(II) complexes of N-salicylideneaniline derivatives carrying either 4-decanoyloxy or 4-octadecanoyloxy substituents on the N-phenyl groups have been prepared and characterized for their smectogenic properties. It is shown by the comparison of phase incidence for these and related series of complexes reported previously that the relative stability of tilted smectic C phases (over A) is lowered upon coordinating the corresponding ligands. The smectic layer distances for the complexes are similar to those for the ligands, and the difference in topological arrangement of the polar groups has been related to the relative weakness in the molecular tilt for the former.
