Abstract A new and versatile method for the preparation of biphenyl thioester series was studied in ferroelectric liquid crystal. Many of the resulting liquid crystal showed a ferroelectric chiral smectic C phase in addition to the chiral nematic and smectic A phase. We obtained a large spontaneous polarization exceeding $10^{-8}$C/c$m^2$ in new biphenyl thioester series. It was found that the size and polarity of the substituent in chiral carbon influenced the magnitude of spontaneous polarization. The series allow us to determine the influence of substituent size in the chiral carbon the existence and the stability of the Sc* phase.