Water printing of ferroelectric polarization

• Published in: Nature communications 2018-09, Vol.9 (1), p.3809-8, Article 3809
• Main Authors: Tian, Yu, Wei, Lanying, Zhang, Qinghua, Huang, Houbing, Zhang, Yuelin, Zhou, Hua, Ma, Fengjie, Gu, Lin, Meng, Sheng, Chen, Long-Qing, Nan, Ce-Wen, Zhang, Jinxing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 140/146; 142/126; 142/136; 147/137; 147/3; 639/301/119/996; 639/638/440/948; Bismuth compounds; Catalysis; Chemical bonds; Chemical energy; Chemical reactions; Chemical stimuli; Clean energy; Data storage; Electric fields; Electrostatic properties; Energy; Ferroelectric materials; Ferroelectricity; First principles; Humanities and Social Sciences; Microscopy; multidisciplinary; Organic chemistry; Photoelectron spectroscopy; Physical properties; Polarization; Scanning electron microscopy; Scanning transmission electron microscopy; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Switching; Transmission electron microscopy
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06369-w

Ferroelectrics, which generate a switchable electric field across the solid–liquid interface, may provide a platform to control chemical reactions (physical properties) using physical fields (chemical stimuli). However, it is challenging to in-situ control such polarization-induced interfacial chemical structure and electric field. Here, we report that construction of chemical bonds at the surface of ferroelectric BiFeO 3 in aqueous solution leads to a reversible bulk polarization switching. Combining piezoresponse (electrostatic) force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy, first-principles calculations and phase-field simulations, we discover that the reversible polarization switching is ascribed to the sufficient formation of polarization-selective chemical bonds at its surface, which decreases the interfacial chemical energy. Therefore, the bulk electrostatic energy can be effectively tuned by H + /OH − concentration. This water-induced ferroelectric switching allows us to construct large-scale type-printing of polarization using green energy and opens up new opportunities for sensing, high-efficient catalysis, and data storage. Controlling ferroelectric polarization is conventionally achieved by applying electric fields, mechanical force or similar. Here reversible switching of the bulk polarization of a BiFeO 3 thin film is demonstrated by pattering aqueous solution on to the surface enabling large-scale switching.