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.