New amphiphilic terphenyl liquid crystals for the preparation of highly ordered ultrathin films

Four new amphiphilic liquid crystals have been synthesized, in which terphenyl was used as the mesogenic unit. In order to enable the formation of Langmuir Monolayers at the air/water-interface, the molecules were equipped with slightly polar headgroups such as esters or a carboxylic acid group. All compounds can be transferred onto solid substrates. In addition, it is possible to prepare freely suspended films of at least one compound in the temperature range of the smectic phases. The phases of the different states, bulk, monolayer, freely suspended film, and Langmuir-Blodgett multilayers have been investigated by means of monolayer isotherms, optical textures, differential scanning calor…