A new synthetic strategy has been developed to introduce bent and rigid tridentate 2, 6-bis (benzimidazol-2'-yl) pyridine cores into rodlike ligands L11-17. The crystal structure of the nonmesogenic ligand L13 (C39H37N5O4, triclinic, P 1̄, Z= 2) shows the expected trans- trans conformation of the tridentate binding unit, which provides a linear arrangement of the semirigid aromatic sidearms. The crystal structure of the related mesogenic ligand L16 ( ...
