Highly luminescent and photoconductive columnar liquid crystals with a thiophene-oxadiazole backbone.

We report columnar liquid-crystalline thiophene-oxadiazole molecules, which can be oriented by electric field and exhibit photodiode properties with an open-circuit voltage of 1 V. Their yellow luminescence can be excited by UV-visible or infrared light. Their room-temperature phosphorescence turns brighter upon heating.