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Updated: Dec 30, 2025

From Molecules to Materials: Engineering New Ionic Liquid Crystals Through Halogen Bonding
Published on: March 24, 2018
Incorporating Spacer Molecules into the Tetrathiafulvalene-p-Chloranil Charge-Transfer Framework: Modulating the
Yukihiro Takahashi1,2, Mika Takehisa2, Eri Tanaka2
1Department of Chemistry , Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University , Sapporo 060-0810 , Japan.
Abstract:
The charge-transfer (CT) tetrathiafulvalene-p-chloranil (TTF-CA) crystal, a representative functional organic electronic material, has been the subject of both basic and applied research. This material shows a neutral-ionic phase transition (NIPT) that induces drastic changes in its physical properties. Here, we use this crystal as a framework and demonstrate a method for modulating physical properties of TTF-CA. A number of multicomponent (ternary) CT crystals were obtained by crystallizing TTF-CA with a third molecular species. These complexes all contain molecular sheets formed with TTF-CA; however, the third molecules were differently inserted between these sheets as spacers to induce a variety of physical properties in the CT crystals. Some showed spacer-modified NIPT, while the transition to the ionic state was suppressed in one complex despite the presence of TTF-CA sheets, which indicates that spacer molecules can modulate the physical properties or functions of CT crystals.
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