Thiolato schiff base complexes of nickel and palladium as mesogens and molecular wires

Abstract

Thermal analysis data of compounds A, C, F and I established that they were nonmesogenic while E and G were found to be mesogenic. The lack of mesogenic behaviour of A could be attributed to hydrogen bonding. The non-mesogenic behaviour of C and F is due to reduced molecular anisotropy as a result of large lateral substituents. Complexes I decomposed at high temperatures and before melting and hence no liquid crystalline behaviour was found. It is likely that the high decomposition temperature is the result of increased molecular interactions. We found that removing the phosphine ligands and increasing molecular length induced liquid crystalline behaviour in complexes E. The more planar complexes G were also found to be liquid crystalline