The effect of the terminal benzyloxy group on the mesomorphic properties of liquid crystalline materials developed from rod-like Schiff base has been described. For this objective, a novel Schiff base liquid crystal family, specifically new series of Schiff base liquid crystals, namely, (E)-4-(alkyloxy)-N-(4-(benzyloxy)benzylidene)aniline, In, are prepared and investigated in detail. The length of the terminal alkyloxy chain (n) varies amongst the compounds in the series. Where n varies between 6, 8 and 16 carbons. At the other end of the compounds, benzyloxy moiety was attached. The molecular structures of all synthesized compounds were established using different spectroscopic techniques. The molecular self-assembly was explored using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and polarized optical microscope (POM). Depending on the length of the terminal alkyloxy chain, only one type of SmA phase with different stability was observed. The previously reported para-substituted systems and the present investigated compounds were compared and discussed. The calculated quantum chemical parameters were computationally correlated using the DFT method via the B3LYP 6-311G(d,p) basis set. The theoretical computations revealed that the length of the alkyl side chain influences the zero-point energy, reactivity and other estimated thermodynamic parameters of benzoyloxy/azomethine derivatives. Furthermore, the FMO energy analysis shows that molecule I16 have higher HOMO energies than the other compounds, and I6 has a much lower LUMO level than the rest.
Keywords: DFT; azomethine; benzyloxy liquid crystals; mesophase; smectic A.