Proton-controlled molecular ionic ferroelectrics

Yulong Huang; Jennifer L Gottfried; Arpita Sarkar; Gengyi Zhang; Haiqing Lin; Shenqiang Ren

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-40825-6

Proton-controlled molecular ionic ferroelectrics

Nat Commun. 2023 Aug 19;14(1):5041. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-40825-6.

Authors

Yulong Huang¹, Jennifer L Gottfried², Arpita Sarkar³, Gengyi Zhang⁴, Haiqing Lin⁴, Shenqiang Ren^{5

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Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA. yhuang59@buffalo.edu.
² Weapons Sciences, US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command-Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen, MD, 21005, USA.
³ Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA.
⁴ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA.
⁵ Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA. sren@umd.edu.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA. sren@umd.edu.
⁷ Research and Education in Energy, Environment and Water (RENEW) Institute, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA. sren@umd.edu.
⁸ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA. sren@umd.edu.

Abstract

Molecular ferroelectric materials consist of organic and inorganic ions held together by hydrogen bonds, electrostatic forces, and van der Waals interactions. However, ionically tailored multifunctionality in molecular ferroelectrics has been a missing component despite of their peculiar stimuli-responsive structure and building blocks. Here we report molecular ionic ferroelectrics exhibiting the coexistence of room-temperature ionic conductivity (6.1 × 10^-5 S/cm) and ferroelectricity, which triggers the ionic-coupled ferroelectric properties. Such ionic ferroelectrics with the absorbed water molecules further present the controlled tunability in polarization from 0.68 to 1.39 μC/cm², thermal conductivity by 13% and electrical resistivity by 86% due to the proton transfer in an ionic lattice under external stimuli. These findings enlighten the development of molecular ionic ferroelectrics towards multifunctionality.

Grants and funding

DE-SC0023433/U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)