Axial-Chiral BINOL Multiferroic Crystals with Coexistence of Ferroelectricity and Ferroelasticity

Chirality exists everywhere from natural amino acids to particle physics. The introduction of point chirality has recently been shown to be an efficient strategy for the construction of molecular ferroelectrics. In contrast to point chirality, however, axial chirality is rarely used to design ferroelectrics so far. Here, based on optically active 1,1'-bi-2-naphthol (BINOL), which has been applied extensively as a versatile chiral reagent in asymmetric catalysis, chiral recognition, and optics, we successfully design a pair of axial-chiral BINOL multiferroics, (R)-BINOL-DIPASi and (S)-BINOL-DIPASi. They experience a 2F1-type full ferroelectric/ferroelastic phase transition at a high temperature of 362 and 363 K, respectively. Piezoelectric force microscopy and polarization-voltage hysteresis loops demonstrate their ferroelectric domains and domain switching, and polarized light microscopy visualizes the evolution of stripe-shaped ferroelastic domains. The axial-chiral BINOL building block promotes the generation of the polar structure and ferroelectricity, and the organosilicon component increases the rotational energy barrier and thus the phase transition temperature. This work presents the first axial-chiral high-temperature multiferroic crystals, offering an efficient path for designing molecular multiferroics through the introduction of axial chirality.