Synthesis and characterization of azo compounds and study of the effect of substituents on their liquid crystalline behavior.

In this paper we present six select mesomorphic azo compounds distinguished by the presence of diverse substituents on a central benzene nucleus. All the synthesized compounds exhibit enantiotropic mesophases. The mesomorphic properties of the substituted compounds were compared with those of the unsubstituted parent compound to evaluate the effect of the nature and position of the substituents on mesomorphism.