Intercalation-driven ferroelectric-to-ferroelastic conversion in a layered hybrid perovskite crystal.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 35662239.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-30822-6 and PMC identifier 9166815.
- 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
Two-dimensional (2D) organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have attracted intense interests due to their quantum well structure and tunable excitonic properties. As an alternative to the well-studied divalent metal hybrid perovskite based on Pb<sup>2+</sup>, Sn<sup>2+</sup> and Cu<sup>2+</sup>, the trivalent metal-based (eg. Sb<sup>3+</sup> with ns2 outer-shell electronic configuration) hybrid perovskite with the A<sub>3</sub>M<sub>2</sub>X<sub>9</sub> formula (A = monovalent cations, M = trivalent metal, X = halide) offer intriguing possibilities for engineering ferroic properties. Here, we synthesized 2D ferroelectric hybrid perovskite (TMA)<sub>3</sub>Sb<sub>2</sub>Cl<sub>9</sub> with measurable in-plane and out-of-plane polarization. Interestingly, (TMA)<sub>3</sub>Sb<sub>2</sub>Cl<sub>9</sub> can be intercalated with FeCl<sub>4</sub> ions to form a ferroelastic and piezoelectric single crystal, (TMA)<sub>4</sub>-Fe(iii)Cl<sub>4</sub>-Sb<sub>2</sub>Cl<sub>9</sub>. Density functional theory calculations were carried out to investigate the unusual mechanism of ferroelectric-ferroelastic crossover in these crystals.