We first synthesised five RM734-analogues which have various modifications made to the 2,4dimethoxybenzoate unit. With 4-nitrophenyl 4-hydroxybenzoate on hand in large quantity, these materials are trivial to prepare in a single step from commercial reagents; were we to utilise a synthesis analogous to the original used for RM734 each material would require three linear steps, including hydrogenation and final esterification. Transition temperatures and phase assignments (made via polarized optical microscopy (POM)) for compounds 1-5 are given in Table ), now thought to be characteristic of the phase. In cases where a direct NF-isotropic phase transition is observed, the NF phase is seen to grow from point singularity defects (Fig 3 )) which coalesce to form the characteristic bulk texture. This observation has been reported previously for the NF-I transition . The transition temperatures and associated enthalpy changes are extracted from their respective DSC thermograms (for example Fig. ), measured at a heat/cool rate of 20 °C min -1 under a nitrogen atmosphere.