Liquid crystals carrying stereodefined vicinal difluoro- and trifluoro- alkyl motifs.

The synthesis of the stereospecifically fluorinated difluoro- and trifluoro- rac-3 and rac-4 is described where the fluorine atoms are positioned adjacent/vicinal to each other and the physical characteristics of these candidate liquid crystals including negative dielectric anisotropy are measured and rationalised.