ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a review of the semiconducting properties of organic molecules that self-assemble into ordered liquid-crystalline mesophases, and discusses their performance in organic solar cells. The chapter is organized as follows: in the first section, the need for high-mobility materials in efficient solar cells is discussed; in the second section, various techniques used to determine the charge mobility in thin films are presented and compared; the third section reviews the basic properties of liquid-crystalline materials; then, the current 272state-of-the-art developments in semiconducting liquid crystals are discussed. Finally, the properties of solar cells that are based on these self-ordering materials are presented.
