An organic-inorganic perovskite ferroelectric with large piezoelectric response

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 357; no. 6348; pp. 306 - 309
• Main Authors: You, Yu-Meng, Liao, Wei-Qiang, Zhao, Dewei, Ye, Heng-Yun, Zhang, Yi, Zhou, Qionghua, Niu, Xianghong, Wang, Jinlan, Li, Peng-Fei, Fu, Da-Wei, Wang, Zheming, Gao, Song, Yang, Kunlun, Liu, Jun-Ming, Li, Jiangyu, Yan, Yanfa, Xiong, Ren-Gen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The American Association for the Advancement of Science 21-07-2017
• Subjects: Ammonium; Barium; Barium titanates; Biomechanics; Biomedical materials; Ceramics; Electricity; Ferroelectric materials; Ferroelectricity; Phase transitions; Piezoelectric ceramics; Piezoelectricity; Robotics; Transition temperature; Transition temperatures; Weight reduction
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.aai8535

Molecular piezoelectrics are highly desirable for their easy and environment-friendly processing, light weight, low processing temperature, and mechanical flexibility. However, although 136 years have passed since the discovery in 1880 of the piezoelectric effect, molecular piezoelectrics with a piezoelectric coefficient
comparable with piezoceramics such as barium titanate (BTO; ~190 picocoulombs per newton) have not been found. We show that trimethylchloromethyl ammonium trichloromanganese(II), an organic-inorganic perovskite ferroelectric crystal processed from aqueous solution, has a large
of 185 picocoulombs per newton and a high phase-transition temperature of 406 kelvin (K) (16 K above that of BTO). This makes it a competitive candidate for medical, micromechanical, and biomechanical applications.