Highly fluorinated thermotropic liquid crystals: an update

Fluorine is used in liquid crystal materials in order to give them particul ar properties as compared to their hydrocarbon homologues. This leads to us e of the new compounds as materials mainly in display devices such as Twist ed Nematic Liquid Crystals Display (TNLCD) or for the development of Surfac e Stabilized Ferroelectric smectic C* display (SSFLCDs). In this paper, we describe recent studies and research effort concerning the liquid crystalli ne behavior of compounds incorporating a highly fluorinated part with more than one fluoromethylene units. We examine some of their mesophase properti es and the impact of molecular shape on the resulting liquid crystal behavi or. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.