Birefringence of Phenylacetylene Liquid Crystalline Compounds

Abstract

In order to study the relationship between the chemical structure and the optical anisotropic properties of liquid crystalline materials, we synthesized and evaluated some liquid crystalline compounds having phenylacetylene unit. Alkenyltolane derivatives showed relatively high optical anisotropy and wide nematic phase. The lirationship between the calculated anisotropy of polarizability(Δ α) and observed optical anisotropy was also investigated.