Mesomorphic behaviour of cerium(III) alkanoates

In this paper. we describe the synthesis. characterisation and thermal beha viour of cerium(III) alkanoates. The compounds have the stoichiometry [Ce(C xH2x+1COO)(3)], where x = 5-17, and were characterised by elemental analysi s and infrared spectroscopy. The thermal behaviour was investigated by hot- stage polarised optical microscopy, by differential scanning calorimetry (D SC) and by high-temperature X-ray diffraction (XRD). A highly viscous mesop hase M and a smectic A phase were observed for the shorter compounds (x = 5 -9), whereas only a smectic A phase was observed for the longer compounds o f these kind of metallomesogens. The chain length has a pronounced effect o n the transition temperatures. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re served.