High birefringence and large negative dielectric anisotropy phenyl‐tolane liquid crystals

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Two phenyl‐tolane compounds with two pairs of (2,3) lateral difluoro substitutions were synthesized and their properties evaluated. These compounds exhibit a high birefringence (Δn ∼ 0.35) and a large negative dielectric anisotropy (Δε∼ −8). These two important features make the phenyl‐tolane compounds useful as a dopant in a negative Δε liquid‐crystal mixture to enhance the performance of the host mixture, or as a negative component in a dual‐frequency liquid‐crystal mixture to improve the dielectric anisotropy and birefringence and lower the crossover frequency.