Ferroelectricity and antiferromagnetism in organic–inorganic hybrid (1,4-bis(imidazol-1-ylmethyl)benzene)CuCl4·H2O

Abstract

Great attention has been paid to organic–inorganic hybrids in searching for single-phase multiferroics because of their flexible structure design. Here, a new [CuCl₄]²⁻ based organic–inorganic hybrid, (bix)CuCl₄·H₂O (bix = 1,4-bis(imidazol-1-ylmethyl)benzene), is synthesized via a simple solution method. Different from most [CuCl₄]²⁻ based organic–inorganic hybrids, tetrahedral [CuCl₄]²⁻ units in (bix)CuCl₄·H₂O are connected to each other through water molecules and form one dimensional chains. The coexistence of ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic ordering in (bix)CuCl₄·H₂O is demonstrated. Its spontaneous polarization and coercive field at room temperature are 2.03 μC cm⁻² and 0.32 kV cm⁻¹, respectively. Furthermore, (bix)CuCl₄·H₂O films with high quality can be easily prepared, which makes them suitable for application in device fabrication.