Evaluation on the electrochemically deposited alkoxy thiourea as liquid crystalline semiconductor film

Highlights: • An alkoxy substituted thiourea was prepared and characterised via spectroscopic and DFT calculations. • This new class of thiourea adopts D-π-A substructure within its molecular framework. • The thiourea was electrochemically deposited on ITO substrate. • Surprisingly, it possess liquid crystalline properties. • The fabricated film exhibits good electrical performance up to 0.2170 S cm⁻¹ under maximum light intensity of 100 W m⁻². - Abstract: A new class of liquid crystalline film of alkoxy thiourea which was successfully deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated substrate via electrochemical deposition method. The relationship between liquid crystal molecular structure, phase transition temperature and electrical performance was evaluated. The mesomorphic properties were identified via polarized optic microscopy (POM) which displayed cholesteric phase and their corresponding transition enthalpies were respectively recorded at 20.25 kJ mol⁻¹. The findings from the conductivity analysis revealed that the fabricated film exhibits good electrical performance with an increasing conductivity up to 0.2170 S cm⁻¹ under maximum light intensity of 100 W m⁻². Therefore, this proposed type of molecular framework has given an ideal indication to act as semiconductor materials and has opened wide potential for application in organic electronic devices.