An organic-inorganic perovskite ferroelectric with large piezoelectric response

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 d33 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 d33 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.

Source: ScienceNOW - July 20, 2017 Category: Science Authors: You, Y.-M., Liao, W.-Q., Zhao, D., Ye, H.-Y., Zhang, Y., Zhou, Q., Niu, X., Wang, J., Li, P.-F., Fu, D.-W., Wang, Z., Gao, S., Yang, K., Liu, J.-M., Li, J., Yan, Y., Xiong, R.-G. Tags: Physics, Applied reports Source Type: news