Copper soaps- dimers of copper(II) symmetrically bridged by four carboxylates- constitute a well studied class of columnar thermotropic liquid crystals where the size and shape of the carboxylate ligand has been correlated with the melting point and range of thermal stability for the mesophase. In this talk I describe the synthesis and properties of copper soaps wherein the molecular symmetry is reduced by inducing different carboxylate ligands to bridge the copper(II) dimer core. These heteroleptic, mixed ligand systems are designed to disrupt packing forces in the solid state and exhibit substantially lower melting points and larger ranges of thermal stability by comparison with related homoleptic copper soaps. The synthetic methods appear general and promise the possibility of tuning liquid crystal properties while controlling the copper content of the fluid material.
