| abstract |
Compounds can serve as a dopant or host in a mixture of ferroelectric chiral smectic liquid crystals. They are characterized by the fact that they are derivatives of an X-hydroxy carboxylic acid and that they contain the chiral unit (I) in which Ro can be an alkyl, an alkoxy, a halogen, (II) where b can vary from 0 to 3, the phenyl ring can be substituted, and a is 0 or 1. The chiral unit combines with a series of combinations of mesogenic groups. Lactic acid derivatives are described in detail (ie Ro = methyl) with various preparation methods, for example the mixture (III) which has doping properties in a series of hosts. |