Ferroelectric liquid crystal compounds and compositions

Abstract

Chiral, nonracemic compounds of the general formula: ##STR1## in which the chiral tail group containing three asymmetric carbons (as indicated by *) is incorporated into a suitable FLC core moiety R--Ar.sub.2 are provided. The Ar.sub.2 core can include phenylbenzoate, biphenyl, phenylpyridine or phenylpyrimidine. R is an alkyl or alkoxy group having three to fifteen carbon atoms and R' is an alkyl group having from three to twelve carbon atoms. The compounds are useful as ferroelectric liquid crystal components having high polarization density. Compounds in which the chiral epoxide tail is the 1R-methyl-2S,3S-epoxy or 1S-methyl-2R,3R-epoxy enantiomer having higher polarization density.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.