Monosubstituted thermotropic ferrocenomesogens: an overview 1976-1999

Research in the late 1940s in academic institutions, most notably the Unive rsity of Hull in the UK, led to the development of liquid crystal display t echnology in the 1970s, which has subsequently had a large impact throughou t the world. The liquid crystal technology is based on simple organic molec ules. Since the late 1980s, some liquid crystal scientists have turned thei r attention to investigating the effect of introducing a metal atom into th e systems. This review focuses on the major developments in the field of fe rrocenyl-containing liquid crystals in which the organometallic group is si tuated in a terminal position with respect to the core of the molecule. Met allomesogens with terminal metal atoms are not very common, since it can be deduced from the theory of organic liquid crystals that bulky terminal gro ups would not be conducive to the stabilization of liquid crystal phases. N evertheless, a terminal ferrocenyl group can stabilize a nematic liquid cry stal phase and examples of this will be discussed in this review. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.