TY - JOUR
T1 - Chirality-induced relaxor properties in ferroelectric polymers
AU - Liu, Yang
AU - Zhang, Bing
AU - Xu, Wenhan
AU - Haibibu, Aziguli
AU - Han, Zhubing
AU - Lu, Wenchang
AU - Bernholc, J.
AU - Wang, Qing
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research through MURI FA9550-19-1-0008 (Q.W.) and the US Office of Naval Research (grant N000141912033, J.B.). The supercomputer time at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NSF OCI-0725070 and ACI-1238993) was provided by NSF grant ACI-1615114 (J.B.). Y.L. thanks T. Williams for technical assistance.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2020/11/1
Y1 - 2020/11/1
N2 - Relaxor ferroelectrics exhibit outstanding dielectric, electromechanical and electrocaloric properties, and are the materials of choice for acoustic sensors, solid-state coolers, transducers and actuators1–4. Despite more than five decades of intensive study, relaxor ferroelectrics remain one of the least understood material families in ferroelectric materials and condensed matter physics5–14. Here, by combining X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscope infrared spectroscopy and first-principles calculations, we reveal that the relaxor behaviour of ferroelectric polymers originates from conformational disorder, completely different from classic perovskite relaxors, which are typically characterized by chemical disorder. We show that chain chirality is essential to the formation of the disordered helix conformation arising from local distortions of gauche torsional angles, which consequently give rise to relaxor properties in polymers. This study not only sheds light on the fundamental mechanisms of relaxor ferroelectrics, but also offers guidance for the discovery of new ferroelectric relaxor organic materials for flexible, scalable and biocompatible sensor and energy applications.
AB - Relaxor ferroelectrics exhibit outstanding dielectric, electromechanical and electrocaloric properties, and are the materials of choice for acoustic sensors, solid-state coolers, transducers and actuators1–4. Despite more than five decades of intensive study, relaxor ferroelectrics remain one of the least understood material families in ferroelectric materials and condensed matter physics5–14. Here, by combining X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscope infrared spectroscopy and first-principles calculations, we reveal that the relaxor behaviour of ferroelectric polymers originates from conformational disorder, completely different from classic perovskite relaxors, which are typically characterized by chemical disorder. We show that chain chirality is essential to the formation of the disordered helix conformation arising from local distortions of gauche torsional angles, which consequently give rise to relaxor properties in polymers. This study not only sheds light on the fundamental mechanisms of relaxor ferroelectrics, but also offers guidance for the discovery of new ferroelectric relaxor organic materials for flexible, scalable and biocompatible sensor and energy applications.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41563-020-0724-6
DO - 10.1038/s41563-020-0724-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 32601482
AN - SCOPUS:85087011334
SN - 1476-1122
VL - 19
SP - 1169
EP - 1174
JO - Nature Materials
JF - Nature Materials
IS - 11
ER -