Ferrocene- and Fullerene[60]- Containing Liquid-Crystalline Materials

This paper shows the versatility of ferrocene and fullerene for the design of thermotropic liquid-crystalline materials: i) the electrochemical properties of the ferrocene-ferrocenium system were exploited to design redox-active metallomesogens (1 and 2); ii) ferrocene-containing side-chain liquid-crystalline polysiloxane (3) and polymethacrylates (5 and 6) were synthesized by grafting a mesomorphic vinylferrocene monomer (4) onto commercially available polysiloxane and by free-radical polymerization of mesomorphic methacrylate-ferrocene monomers (7 and 8), respectively; iii) a first-generation ferrocene-containing liquid-crystalline dendrimer (9) was synthesized; and iv) liquid-crystalline fullerene (10) and mixed fullerene-ferrocene (11) derivatives were obtained by functionalizing the C60 core with a twin cholesterol moiety

Enantioselective Formation of Amino Acids by Isomerization of Mixed Ligand Copper(ll) Schiff-Base Complexes

The formation of optically active phenylalanine from phenylpyruvic acid and pyridoxamine in the presence of various chiral CuII complexes was investigated as a function of the reaction conditions. The enantioselectivity of the reaction, as well as the pH- and ligand-dependant racemization of the product, is discussed in terms of possible reaction pathways and the most likely structure of intermediate [Cu(L)aldimine] complexes

Liquid-Crystalline Dendrimers Based on Ferrocene and Fullerene

We present the synthesis and liquid-crystalline properties of a second generation ferrocene-containing liquid-crystalline dendrimer, and the liquid-crystalline behavior of a second generation mixed fullerene-ferrocene liquid-crystalline dendrimer. Both compounds gave rise to smectic A phases, which were identified by polarized optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. The liquid-crystalline behavior is determined by the cholesterol units which have been selected as mesomorphic promoters. Therefore, both compounds display similar liquid-crystalline properties