Measurement of orientational correlated disorder resulting from in-plane rotations of fluorinated buckybowls

We propose to study the orientational correlations in four molecular fluorinated variations of sumanene. Diffuse scattering (DS) will be used to elucidate the correlations in the disordered dipoles associated with the position of the substituted fluorine. We will study the temperature and field dependence of these correlations as well as the effect of molecular stereochemistry. This study has three main aims: (i) to understand the nature of static correlated disorder as a function of temperature, field and molecular stereochemistry, (ii) to elucidate the effect of the correlated disorder on the dielectric properties of these materials and thus, (iii) to understand the role of composition and stacking geometry on the dielectric properties which make these materials so exciting.