Revisiting a family of liquid crystalline methacrylic phenyl benzoate monomers

•Reactive LC monomers are a promising material for various applications in materials science.•LC monomers with smectic and nematic phases are useful for creating complex structures.•Methacrylic LCs esters with mono and enantiotropic behavior allows to engineer their corresponding polymers.•Using homologous series of reactive mesogens allows for the fine-tuning of the material's physical properties.