Synthetic aspects of fluorine-containing chiral liquid crystals

Synthesis of fluorine-containing chiral molecules useful as a part or a whole of liquid crystalline materials is described with the emphasis on (1) asymmetric hemiacetal synthesis of trifluoroacetaldehyde using a BINOL-titanium catalyst, (2) first stereospecific carbon-carbon bond formation through a nucleophilic substitution at the chiral acetal carbon bearing a trifluoromethyl group using organoaluminium reagents, (3) synthesis of diastereomeric dichiral liquid crystals containing two fluorine atoms at two chiral centers, and (4) unusual transition behaviour of the dichiral liquid crystals.