IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-58416-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mechanically deformable organic ferroelectric crystal with plasticity optimized by fluorination

Author

Listed:
  • Pei-Zhi Huang

    (Zhejiang Normal University)

  • Zunqi Liu

    (Xinjiang Agricultural University)

  • Lou-Kai Ye

    (Zhejiang Normal University)

  • Hao-Fei Ni

    (Zhejiang Normal University)

  • Jia-Qi Luo

    (Zhejiang Normal University)

  • Gele Teri

    (Zhejiang Normal University)

  • Qiang-Qiang Jia

    (Zhejiang Normal University)

  • Bo Zhuang

    (Southeast University)

  • Chang-Feng Wang

    (Zhejiang Normal University)

  • Zhi-Xu Zhang

    (Zhejiang Normal University)

  • Yi Zhang

    (Zhejiang Normal University)

  • Da-Wei Fu

    (Zhejiang Normal University
    Xinjiang Agricultural University)

Abstract

The ability of plastic deformation exerts in bulk crystals would offer great promise for ferroelectrics to achieve emerging and exciting applications. However, conventional ferroelectric crystals generally suffer from inherent brittleness and are easy to fracture. Here, by implementing fluorination on anion, we successfully design a flexible organic ferroelectric phenylethylammonium trifluoromethanesulfonate (PEA-TFMS) with interesting plasticity in its bulk crystals. To our knowledge, it is the first observation since the discovery of organic ferroelectric crystal triglycine sulfate in 1956. Compared to parent PEA-MS (phenylethylammonium mesylate), fluorination subtly alters ionic orientation and interactions to reorganize dipole arrangement, which not only brings switchable spontaneous polarization but also endows PEA-TFMS crystal with macroscopical bending and spiral deformability, making it a competitive candidate for flexible and wearable devices. Our work will bring inspiration for obtaining mechanically deformable organic ferroelectric crystals toward flexible electronics.

Suggested Citation

  • Pei-Zhi Huang & Zunqi Liu & Lou-Kai Ye & Hao-Fei Ni & Jia-Qi Luo & Gele Teri & Qiang-Qiang Jia & Bo Zhuang & Chang-Feng Wang & Zhi-Xu Zhang & Yi Zhang & Da-Wei Fu, 2025. "Mechanically deformable organic ferroelectric crystal with plasticity optimized by fluorination," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58416-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58416-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58416-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-58416-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yuzhong Hu & Kaushik Parida & Hao Zhang & Xin Wang & Yongxin Li & Xinran Zhou & Samuel Alexander Morris & Weng Heng Liew & Haomin Wang & Tao Li & Feng Jiang & Mingmin Yang & Marin Alexe & Zehui Du & C, 2022. "Bond engineering of molecular ferroelectrics renders soft and high-performance piezoelectric energy harvesting materials," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Seungkyu Lee & Heather A. Calcaterra & Sangmin Lee & Wisnu Hadibrata & Byeongdu Lee & EunBi Oh & Koray Aydin & Sharon C. Glotzer & Chad A. Mirkin, 2022. "Shape memory in self-adapting colloidal crystals," Nature, Nature, vol. 610(7933), pages 674-679, October.
    3. Paul Noël & Felix Trier & Luis M. Vicente Arche & Julien Bréhin & Diogo C. Vaz & Vincent Garcia & Stéphane Fusil & Agnès Barthélémy & Laurent Vila & Manuel Bibes & Jean-Philippe Attané, 2020. "Non-volatile electric control of spin–charge conversion in a SrTiO3 Rashba system," Nature, Nature, vol. 580(7804), pages 483-486, April.
    4. Yong Hu & Zhiyu Liu & Chi-Chin Wu & Jennifer L. Gottfried & Rose Pesce-Rodriguez & Scott D. Walck & Peter W. Chung & Shenqiang Ren, 2021. "Chemically driven energetic molecular ferroelectrics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-7, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yong Hu & Jennifer L. Gottfried & Rose Pesce-Rodriguez & Chi-Chin Wu & Scott D. Walck & Zhiyu Liu & Sangeeth Balakrishnan & Scott Broderick & Zipeng Guo & Qiang Zhang & Lu An & Revant Adlakha & Mostaf, 2022. "Releasing chemical energy in spatially programmed ferroelectrics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Alexander Hensley & Thomas E. Videbæk & Hunter Seyforth & William M. Jacobs & W. Benjamin Rogers, 2023. "Macroscopic photonic single crystals via seeded growth of DNA-coated colloids," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Jun-Chao Qi & Hang Peng & Zhe-Kun Xu & Zhong-Xia Wang & Yuan-Yuan Tang & Wei-Qiang Liao & Guifu Zou & Yu-Meng You & Ren-Gen Xiong, 2024. "Discovery of molecular ferroelectric catalytic annulation for quinolines," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    4. Junyi Ji & Guoliang Yu & Changsong Xu & H. J. Xiang, 2024. "Fractional quantum ferroelectricity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-6, December.
    5. Chaosheng Hu & Xingyue Liu & Huiyu Dan & Chong Guo & Maoyi Zhang & Chris R. Bowen & Ya Yang, 2025. "Quantifying the pyroelectric and photovoltaic coupling series of ferroelectric films," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-12, December.
    6. Yu, Wei & Zhou, Yang & Li, Zedian & Zhu, Dahai & Wang, Lingling & Lei, Qiuxing & Wu, Changheng & Xie, Huaqing & Li, Yifan, 2024. "When thermochromic material meets shape memory alloy: A new smart window integrating thermal storage, temperature regulation, and ventilation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 372(C).
    7. Ju Han & Sung Hyun Park & Ye Seul Jung & Yong Soo Cho, 2024. "High-performance piezoelectric energy harvesting in amorphous perovskite thin films deposited directly on a plastic substrate," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58416-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.