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

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.