Dielectric and ferroelectric sensing based on molecular recognition in Cu(1,10-phenlothroline)<sub>2</sub>SeO<sub>4</sub>·(diol) systems.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 28216653.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms14551 and PMC identifier 5321740.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The process of molecular recognition is the assembly of two or more molecules through weak interactions. Information in the process of molecular recognition can be transmitted to us via physical signals, which may find applications in sensing and switching. The conventional signals are mainly limited to light signal. Here, we describe the recognition of diols with Cu(1,10-phenlothroline)<sub>2</sub>SeO<sub>4</sub> and the transduction of discrete recognition events into dielectric and/or ferroelectric signals. We observe that systems of Cu(1,10-phenlothroline)<sub>2</sub>SeO<sub>4</sub>·(diol) exhibit significant dielectric and/or ferroelectric dependence on different diol molecules. The compounds including ethane-1,2-diol or propane-1,2-diol just show small temperature-dependent dielectric anomalies and no reversible polarization, while the compound including ethane-1,3-diol shows giant temperature-dependent dielectric anomalies as well as ferroelectric reversible spontaneous polarization. This finding shows that dielectricity and/or ferroelectricity has the potential to be used for signalling molecular recognition.