Synthesis and Characterization of Non-Mesogenic Amide-Ester Derivatives Containing Different Terminal Alkyl Chains

A series of new hybrid amide-ester derivatives was successfully synthesized and characterized.Compounds 2a and 2b were differentiated by different alkyl chains lengths ( 13 27 , 15 31 ).The reaction started with 4-nitrobenzoic acid and thionyl chloride in dichloromethane, which was further reacted with 4-aminophenol in the presence of triethylamine to produce intermediate 1. Next, intermediate 1 underwent an esterification reaction with myristic acid and palmitic acid in the presence of dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC), dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP) and dimethylformamide (DMF) to produce compounds 2a and 2b.These compounds were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), and carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen (CHN) elemental analysis.The transition mesophases of these derivatives were determined using a polarized optical microscope (POM).All the compounds produced were non-mesogenic and did not have any liquid crystal properties due to the nonlinearity of their structures.