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Published on: March 10, 2023
Bioferroelectric Properties of Glycine Crystals
Pengfei Hu1,2, Shunbo Hu2,3, Yundi Huang1,2
1Department of Chemistry , Shanghai University , Shanghai 200444 , China.
Abstract:
Biological ferroelectric materials have great potential in biosensing and disease diagnosis and treatment. Glycine crystals form the simplest bioferroelectric materials, and here we investigate the polarizations of its β- and γ-phases. Using density functional theory, we predict that glycine crystals can develop polarizations even larger than those of conventional inorganic ferroelectrics. Further, using systematic molecular dynamics simulations utilizing polarized crystal charges, we predict the Curie temperature of γ-glycine to be 630 K, with a required coercive field to switch its polarization states of 1 V·nm-1, consistent with experimental evidence. This work sheds light on the microscopic mechanism of electric dipole ordering in biomaterials, helping in the material design of novel bioferroelectrics.
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