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Updated: Nov 20, 2025

Measuring Magnetically-Tuned Ferroelectric Polarization in Liquid Crystals
Published on: August 15, 2018
Observation of Transition from Ferroelasticity to Ferroelectricity by Solvent Selective Effect in Anilinium Bromide
Da-Wei Fu1, Ji-Xing Gao1, Pei-Zhi Huang1
1Institute for Science and Applications of Molecular Ferroelectrics, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Catalysis Materials, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, 321004, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Organic ferroelectrics are highly desirable for their light weight, mechanical flexibility and biocompatibility. However, the rational design of organic ferroelectrics has always faced great challenges. Anilinium bromide (AB) has two structures reported in the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, which might be an mmmF2/m type ferroelastic (AB-1). When we studied its ferroelasticity, we were surprised to discover that there was another crystal (AB-2) in H2 O besides this one, and they were very difficult to separate. By changing the solvent, we found that AB-1 crystals could be formed in ethanol, where ferroelastic domains were visualized by polarized light microscopy, and AB-2 crystals could be obtained from various crystallization solvents of methanol, isopropanol, N-butanol, acetonitrile, dimethyl sulfoxide, and N,N-dimethylformamide, which undergo a ferroelectric phase transition with mm2Fm, showing clear ferroelectricity in two phases. To our knowledge, the regulation of ferroelasticity to ferroelectricity by solvent selective effect is unprecedented in the field of ferroelectrics. This work reveals the important role of solvent effect in organic ferroelectrics.
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