Di-ortho-fluoroazobenzene Functionalized Discotic Nematic Liquid Crystals as Soft Ambipolar Semiconductors

We report two discotic nematic (N_D) liquid crystals (LCs) based on di-ortho-fluoroazobenzene units tethered to hexaalkynyl and pentaalkynyl benzene cores. The molecular design combines photoresponsive azobenzene motifs with discotic architectures to promote charge transport in the nematic phase. Notably, space-charge-limited current measurements reveal that compound 1 exhibits ambipolar charge transport with carrier mobilities of the order of 10^-3 cm² V^-1 s^-1. These results highlight di-ortho-fluoroazobenzene functionalized discotic nematics as promising soft semiconducting materials.