title: Flexible ferroelectric organic crystals.
abstract: Flexible organic materials possessing useful electrical properties, such as ferroelectricity, are of crucial importance in the engineering of electronic devices. Up until now, however, only ferroelectric polymers have intrinsically met this flexibility requirement, leaving small-molecule organic ferroelectrics with room for improvement. Since both flexibility and ferroelectricity are rare properties on their own, combining them in one crystalline organic material is challenging. Herein, we report that trisubstituted haloimidazoles not only display ferroelectricity and piezoelectricity-the properties that originate from their non-centrosymmetric crystal lattice-but also lend their crystalline mechanical properties to fine-tuning in a controllable manner by disrupting the weak halogen bonds between the molecules. This element of control makes it possible to deliver another unique and highly desirable property, namely crystal flexibility. Moreover, the electrical properties are maintained in the flexible crystals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3113, USA.
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Owczarek
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, 2170 Campus Drive, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3113, USA.
authors.forename: Karl A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Hujsak
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3113, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Ferris
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3113, USA.
authors.forename: Aleksandrs
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Prokofjevs
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Wroclaw Medical University, Borowska 211a, 50-556 Wrocław, Poland.
authors.forename: Irena
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Majerz
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Chemistry, University of Wroclaw, F. Joliot Curie 14, 50-383 Wrocław, Poland.
authors.forename: Przemysław
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Szklarz
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3113, USA.
authors.forename: Huacheng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3113, USA.
authors.forename: Amy A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Sarjeant
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3113, USA.
authors.forename: Charlotte L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Chemistry, University of Wroclaw, F. Joliot Curie 14, 50-383 Wrocław, Poland.
authors.forename: Ryszard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jakubas
authors.affiliation: Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon 34141, Korea.
authors.forename: Seungbum
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2667-1983
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, 2170 Campus Drive, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3113, USA.
authors.forename: Vinayak P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Dravid
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3113, USA.
authors.forename: J Fraser
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Stoddart