Supramolecular Rotor Assembly for the Design of a Hybrid Ferroelectric-Antiferromagnetic Multiferroic Semiconductor

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2024 Dec 2:e202421298. doi: 10.1002/anie.202421298. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

Ferroelectric (FE)-antiferromagnetic (AFM) multiferroic materials have sparked growing interest due to their huge possibilities in energy-saving, photoelectric devices, nonvolatile storage, and switches. However, realizing FE-AFM properties in a hybrid molecular material is difficult because ferroelectric and magnetic orders are commonly mutually exclusive. Here, we report an FE-AFM multiferroic semiconductor [NH4(18-crown-6)]2[Mn(SCN)4] (NCMS) by supramolecular assembly approach via molecular rotor synthon [NH4(18-crown-6)] and inorganic magnetic module [Mn(SCN)4]. Interestingly, NCMS shows good ferroelectricity with a spontaneous polarization (Ps) of 5.94 μC cm-2 higher than most crown-ether-based ferroelectrics. Especially, the realization of antiferromagnetism is for the first time in the crown ether hybrid perovskite ferroic systems. Additionally, semiconductor NCMS displays an X-ray radiation detection response with a large photo/dark current on-off ratio (197). Our study not only gives a deep insight into understanding multiferroic properties but also provides a novel and efficient approach to realizing high-performance hybrid multiferroic materials.

Keywords: antiferromagnetism; ferroelectricity; multiferroic materials• semiconductors; supramolecular rotors.