Paramagnetic Liquid Crystals With Close π–π Packing: The Effect of Blatter Radical Planarization on Behavior of Bent‐Core Mesogens

A new, 19 π-delocalized electrons planar Blatter radical building block was developed and used to obtain paramagnetic bent-core liquid crystals. The mesogens were investigated by optical, thermal, powder XRD and DFT methods in the pure form and as binary mixtures. Compar- ison of their properties with those of the classical Blatter radical analogues revealed that planarization of the central angular element results in a significantly higher stability of the mesophases and increased molecular organization suit-able for the formation of ordered banana and columnar mesophases with tighter π–π interactions. These results indicate access to a new, potentially rich class of functional paramagnetic soft materials