Abstract Molecular motion associated with rotational and orientational phase transitions is one of the prominent structural strategies for assembling the functional materials such as artificial motors and tunable molecular dielectrics. Here, a new organic chromophore molecule, 4-N, N-dimethylamino-4′-N′-methylstilbazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate (complex 1), which undergoes an exceptional order-disorder phase transition at 322 K, is ...