Journal of the American Chemical Society
Article
first evaluated by a point charge model (see the Supporting
Information for details). The obvious displacement between
positively charged [4-F-Q]+ and negatively charged [ReO4]−
gives a major source of polarization at about 8.19 μC/cm2,
which is obviously larger than that in the [Q]ReO4 crystal at
7.58 μC/cm2.15 More importantly, the net dipole moment of
the quinuclidine molecule is antiparallel to the total polar-
ization direction, causing the total polarization to be partially
canceled out (5.83 μC/cm2 in [Q]ReO4).15 To change the
direction of the molecular dipole moment to increase the total
polarization, we applied the molecular design strategy of H/F
substitution to successfully obtain the organic ferroelectric [4-
F-Q]ReO4 (Figure 1c).
In order to gain deep insight into the ferroelectric
polarization, density functional theory (DFT) calculations
were carried out to evaluate the origin of polarization. A
dynamic path between the ferroelectric phase and reference
phase configuration is constructed on the basis of the crystal
structure obtained from single-crystal X-ray diffraction.
Accordingly, the structure of the low-temperature ferroelectric
phase at 93 K is used as the ferroelectric configuration (λ = 1),
while the reference phase (λ = 0) configuration is obtained
from the matrix transformation of the coordinates of λ = 1,
considering both the rotation of the organic cations and
anionic [ReO4]−. The variations of polarization as a function of
the dynamic path are shown in Figure 1d, from which a
ferroelectric polarization of 11.37 μC/cm2 can be extracted
from the initial point of the λ = 1 configuration. On
consideration of the ionic polarization 8.19 μC/cm2 from
point charge analysis, the reason for such a slightly larger value
obtained by DFT calculations is due to the net dipole moment
of the 4-F-quinuclidine molecule being parallel to the total
polarization direction. In order to evaluate the dipole moment
of the 4-F-quinuclidine molecule, different theoretical algo-
rithms were carried out within the Gaussian program, and the
results (1.29 D under b3lyp/6-31+G(d) and 1.32 D under
MP2/aug-cc-pvdz) are almost the same. Such a dipole
amplitude can contribute 1.72−1.76 μC/cm2 to the total
polarization, in good accordance with the mismatch between
DFT calculations and a point charge analysis, since the latter
only considers the ionic polarization.
To dissect the total polarization during the dynamic path, we
also evaluated the dynamics of protonated 4-F-Q and the ReO4
separately (Figure S6). From the polarization path, the total
polarization is mainly contributed by the 4-F-Q part, as the
ReO4 part only contributes a minor amount to the total
polarization. Therefore, the ferroelectric polarization increases
obviously from both the ionic and molecular dipole parts due
to the 4-F substitution. The total polarization of [4-F-Q]ReO4
(11.37 μC/cm2) is nearly double that in [Q]ReO4 (5.83 μC/
cm2). From this point of view, the well-designed F atom
substitution is an effective strategy to enhance the ferroelectric
polarization performance.
Figure 2. Ferroelectric properties of [4-F-Q]ReO4. (a) DSC curves of
[4-F-Q]ReO4. (b) SHG intensity of [4-F-Q]ReO4 as a function of
temperature. (c) Temperature dependence of the ε′ values of a [4-F-
Q]ReO4 powder sample at several frequencies. (d) P−E hysteresis
loops measured at 323 K on the thin film of [4-F-Q]ReO4 by using
the double-wave method.
both of which may be caused by decomposition or one of
which may be caused by decomposition and the other by a
phase transition. We also detected the symmetry change
accompanying the phase transition by the temperature-
dependent second harmonic generation (SHG) intensity
(Figure 2b). The SHG intensity has nonzero values below
T3, corresponding to the noncentrosymmetric space group in
phase I (Pn) and phases II and III (Amm2). However, the
SHG intensity drops sharply to zero at around T3, indicating
the transition to the centrosymmetric structure in phase IV,
consistent with the possible Cmcm space group from PXRD
results. Therefore, the phase transition at T3 is a ferroelectric to
paraelectric transition. It is noted that the Curie temperature
(T3 = 466 K) of [4-F-Q]ReO4 is much higher than that (367
K) of [Q]ReO4 and is among the highest Curie temperatures
in organic ferroelectrics. The substitution of an H atom by an F
atom increases the energy barrier for rotating the [4-F-Q]+
cation in the phase transition process, which results in the
enhancement of the Curie temperature, as found in the case of
(R)- and (S)-3-(fluoropyrrolidinium)MnCl3.16
The ferroelectric to paraelectric transition nature at T3
(Curie temperature) is also shown in the temperature-
dependent real part (ε′) of the complex dielectric constant
of the powder sample, which displays tremendous dielectric
anomalies near T3 (Figure 2c). In the vicinity of T1 and T2,
small dielectric anomalies are observed, confirming the phase
transitions at these two temperatures. We then further verify
[4-F-Q]ReO4 to be a ferroelectric by polarization−electric field
(P−E) hysteresis loop experiments. The thin-film sample
shows a good P−E hysteresis loop at 323 K (Figure 2d),
directly confirming the ferroelectric nature. The obtained
spontaneous polarization (Ps) and remnant polarization (Pr)
have equal values of 11.2 μC/cm2, consistent with the
theoretical calculation results. The Ps value of [4-F-Q]ReO4
is almost twice that of the [Q]ReO4 thin-film sample (5.2 μC/
cm2)15 and is larger than those of most of the organic
ferroelectrics, including the classical triglycine sulfate (3.5 μC/
cm2)17 and PVDF (8.0 μC/cm2)17 and the recently reported
The sequential structural phase transformations in [4-F-
Q]ReO4 were confirmed by the heat anomalies in the
differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curves, which show
three phase transitions at around T1 = 345 K, T2 = 387 K, and
T3 = 466 K, respectively (Figure 2a). The entropy change
(ΔS) for the phase transition at T3 (22.3 J mol−1 K−1) is
significantly larger than that at T2 (1.44 J mol−1 K−1) and T1
(0.08 J mol−1 K−1), in good accordance with the ferroelectric
to paraelectric transition. Figure S7 also displays two DSC
peaks after the decomposition, T4 = 568 K and T5 = 574 K,
C
J. Am. Chem. Soc. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX