Journal of the American Chemical Society
Article
directions. As shown in Figure S4, a clear difference between
the in-plane and out-of-plane directions was observable,
showing an obvious capacitance anisotropic behavior in the
film of 1. For the in-plane direction, there was a huge hump of
capacitance over a wide temperature range from 50 to 125 K,
and there was also a corresponding humped peak on the
temperature dependence of dielectric loss curves. However,
only one nearly flat capacitance curve was observed in the out-
of-plane direction. On consideration that electron hopping
between FeII and FeIII sites occurs at ca. 120 K, the capacitance
anomaly along the in-plane direction is thought to be due to
the intralayer electron oscillation between FeII and FeIII sites.
The results also indicate that the temperature could possibly
extend to 50 K for the electron oscillation between FeII and
FeIII sites.
Ferroelectric Properties. The P−E loops for film 1 were
subsequently measured using the positive-up−negative-down
(PUND) method along the in-plane and out-of-plane
directions. The PUND method was used to eliminate the
contributions induced by the small electrical conductivity. To
measure the in-plane P−E loop, the interdigital electrodes were
deposited on the surface of film 1. As shown in Figure 3a, a
six-membered [FeIIIFeII(dto)3]− lattice, the center of the net
negative charge at the center of the six-membered lattice.
Then, an electric dipole oriented from the six-membered lattice
to the [(n-C3H7)4N]+ is formed. Therefore, compound 1 has
an intrinsic spontaneous polarization along the c axis. However,
the center of the net negative charge will change according to
the electron oscillation between FeIII and FeII sites in the six-
membered lattice, resulting in a change in the electric dipole
and polarization. For the polarization reversal, it is understood
that the polarization change was achieved by electron hopping
under an electric field: that is, by the controlled movement of
electrons under an electric field between two adjacent FeII and
FeIII atoms.
To better understand this polarization reversal, electron
hopping is simplified to the electron movement between two
adjacent FeII and FeIII atoms, and the polarization change was
simply induced by electron hopping. The net negative charge
in the intralayer was imposed on the mobile electrons on the
FeIII/FeII sites. Therefore, the polarization change was
indicated as mobile electrons to the static [(n-C3H7)4N]+
positive charge center. As shown in Figure 3b, the total
polarization has two components, one along the in-plane
direction and the other in the out-of-plane direction. In the in-
plane direction, the polarization could be reversed, accom-
panied by an electron position change between FeIII and FeII
sites. Therefore, ferroelectricity is exhibited in the in-plane
direction of the film of 1. The in-plane ferroelectric
polarization was calculated using the point electric charge
model,30 and the estimated polarization is ∼11.7 μC/cm2,
which is close to the experimental value (10.0 μC/cm2) at 50
accompanied by electron movement, the polarization is
constant and is in the same direction, meaning that the
polarization cannot be reversed with electron movement.
Therefore, the ferroelectricity was attributed to electron
hopping between the FeII and FeIII sites in the intralayer
structure.
Figure 3. (a) Hysteresis loops of electric polarization of the film of 1
measured at 300 K in the in-plane direction. (b) Schematic
representation of the dependence of the polarization on the applied
electric field for ferroelectricity of 1.
To further confirm that ferroelectricity was caused by
electron hopping, as a contrasting test, the FeII ions were
replaced by nonmagnetic ZnII ions, leading to the compound
[(n-C3H7)4N][FeIIIZnII(dto)3] (2). Herein, electron hopping
was prohibited between FeIII and ZnII.41 Similarly, the same
method as for 1 was used to prepare a film of 2. The films of 2
grow preferentially along the c axis direction on the substrates
(Figure S7a). Abnormal values were not observed in the
capacitance curves in 2 (Figure S7b), which were both in-
plane. No ferroelectric signals were observed in the in-plane
C3H7)4N]+ to polarization can also be excluded. This indicates
that the ferroelectric polarization in 1 can be attributed to the
electron oscillation between the FeII and FeIII sites in the
intralayer structure.
Magnetoelectric Coupling. PFM measurements were
performed on the surface of the film to further reveal the
ferroelectric properties of 1. Out-of-plane and in-plane
responses were measured, which are directly related to the
magnitude and direction of the polarization by the amplitude
and phase signals (Figure 4). The out-of-plane and in-plane
PFM amplitude and phase, as shown in Figure 4a,c,
respectively, proved the static domain structure under zero
field for the film of 1. Obviously, classical domain structures, in
which domain walls have low local amplitudes and the
neighboring domains differ in phase by 180°, were present in
good P−E loop was obtained at 300 K with the electric field
applied along the in-plane direction, which confirmed the
existence of ferroelectric polarization in the in-plane direction.
To verify the reliability of the ferroelectric measurements,
contrasting ferroelectric tests were carried out on the Si/SiO2
substrate and no ferroelectric signal was detected (Figure S6a).
Therefore, 1 was confirmed to be a ferroelectric material. At
the same time, ideal P−E hysteresis loops over a wide
temperature range from 50 to 300 K were also observed
(Figure 3a and Figure S5). By a comparison of the value of the
polarization, it was found that the value decreased gradually
with increasing temperature, which may be caused by
increasing leakage current.
To clarify the source of ferroelectric polarization, the out-of-
plane P−E hysteresis loops were measured on the basis of the
film of 1 fabricated on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)
substrates with a top-down Ga−In alloy electrode. The out-of-
plane P−E data showed normal linear dielectric behavior
(Figure S6b). On consideration that only in-plane P−E
hysteresis loops could be obtained, together with the presence
of electron hopping only along the in-plane direction, it is
reasonable to argue that the origin of ferroelectric polarization
can be ascribed to electron hopping. Accordingly, a possible
polarization model related to the electron hopping between the
FeII and FeIII sites in 1 has been proposed (Figure 3b). Equal
numbers of alternating FeII and FeIII connections coexist in the
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J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 5779−5785