Initium Sapientiæ Timor Domini

This Ph.D. Thesis describes the synthesis, structure and properties of a series of organic molecules. The main effort has been placed towards the structural understanding of organic materials and the scattering techniques employed for this purpose has involved conventional X-rays, synchrotron X-rays and neutrons.
The report is divided into four Chapters. The first, Chapter one, is in three Parts. The first Part gives a brief but complete introduction to the dielectric properties of organic materials. The second Part describes the experimental work on synthesising organic dielectric materials and provides an understanding their structure and properties. The third Part describes some work on placing polar organic materials on surfaces under UHV (Ultra High Vacuum) conditions. Chapter two, is also in three Parts the first being a brief introduction to the subject of molecular liquid crystals with particular emphasis on discotic liquid crystals. The second Part describes the structural characterisation pertaining to triphenylene based discotic premesogens and their relation to the structural properties as found in the literature. The final Part is a critical discussion of the structure of discotic mesophases as presented in the literature and as implied by the results obtained from this work. Chapter three describes the work done on the structural characterisation of a particular type of macromolecule and is in three Parts. The first Part is a brief introduction to the subject while the second Part describes the synthesis and the structural characterisation of the conformational behaviour of these molecules. The third Part describes a statistical survey based on the CCD (Cambridge Crystallographic Database). Chapter four is the final Chapter and is also in three Parts. The first Part is a statistical survey of R-factors as found in the CCD. The second Part is a structural study of an atropisomeric organic molecule and the final Part describes the synthesis of a perdeuterated polymer for neutron studies.