The dynamics of a simple and rigid molecule (2-chlorothiophene) has been studied by means of broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) within the low-temperature stable crystalline phase, whose structure has been determined by means of powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) measurements. The triclinic P1 structure consists of two molecules per asymmetric unit (Z' = 2) with site occupancies of 80:20 and 60:40 for each molecule of the asymmetric unit. Such a statistical intrinsic disorder is associated with two dynamical relaxation processes corresponding respectively to out-of-plane relaxations around the C–Cl 2-fold molecular axis and in-plane reorientational motions as proposed previously (Fujiromi and Oguni, J. Phys. Chem. Solids 1993, 54, 437-612). The PXRD and BDS measurements allow rationalizing published nuclear quadrupole resonance data. We show that only the concurrent use of different experimental techniques provides the answer to a complicated case of orientational molecular dynamics in the solid state.

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