Mechanisms of Molecular Ferroelectrics Made Simple

Abstract

Molecular ferroelectrics have captured immense attention due to their superiority over inorganic oxide ferroelectrics, such as environmentally friendly, low-cost, flexibility, foldability. However, the mechanisms of ferroelectric switching and phase transition for the molecular ferroelectrics are still missing, which leaves the development of novel molecular ferroelectrics less efficient. In this work, we have provided a protocol combining molecular dynamics (MD) simulation on a polarized force field named polarized crystal charge (PCC) and enhanced sampling technique, replica-exchange molecular dynamics (REMD), to simulate such mechanisms. With this procedure, we have investigated a promising molecular ferroelectric material, (R)/(S)-3-quinuclidinol crystal. We have simulated the ferroelectric hysteresis loops of both enantiomers and obtained spontaneous polarization as 7/8 \uf06dC·cm and corresponding coercive electric field as 15 kV·cm. We also find the Curie temperature as 380/385 K for ferro-/para-electric phase transition of both enantiomers. All of the simulated results are highly compatible with experimental values. Besides of that, we predict a novel Curie temperature of about 600 K. This finding is further validated by principal component analysis (PCA). Our work would promote the future exploration of multifunctional molecular ferroelectrics for the next generation of intelligent devices.