Tailoring amide N-substitution to direct liquid crystallinity in benzanilide-based dimers

The design of liquid crystalline dimers containing tertiary benzanilide groups has proved challenging due to their strong preference for the E amide conformation. In this work we have investigated the effect of different N- substituents on the amide conformation of model benzanilide monomers and found this had effectively no effect on conformation. Based on this observation, we investigated the effect of introducing large, flexible decyl chains at the amide nitrogen and compare their properties to the corresponding benzanilide-based dimers with lateral methyl substituents. The introduction of the decyl chain decreases the melting temperatures, and the tendency to crystallise, promoting glassy behaviour. This allows for nematic behaviour to be seen to much lower temperatures.