The ramifications of changing molecular geometry in a series of all-aromatic liquid crystals derived from p-quinquephenyl are reported. Substituting heterocyclic rings such as thiophene, oxadiazole, oxazole, or 1, 3-phenylene into the p-quinquephenylene core affects molecular shape changes via the substituent's exocyclic bond angle. In general, we found that introducing nonlinearity into molecules depresses the melting transition temperature. ...
