Structure and Dynamics of a Model Discotic Organic Conducting Material

Organic conducting materials exhibit promising functionalities, inducing hence a keen interest due to their potential use as a next generation photoconverters. However, unlike the more expensive inorganic analogues, the underlying properties that give rise to these advantages also cause organic materials to be inherently inefficient as photovoltaics. Understanding their properties at the microscopic level is a major step towards an efficient and targeted design. We probed the morphological and dynamical aspects of a model organic discotic liquid crystal material hexakis(n-hexyloxy)triphenylene (HAT₆) by using neutron-based diffraction and quasielastic scattering techniques to gain deeper insights into structure and dynamics. The neutron measurements are accompanied, in a synergistic way, by molecular dynamics simulations for the sake of the analysis and interpretation of the observations.