Chiral perovskites have emerged as a significant class of materials showing promising optoelectronic and spintronic applications. Reports of chiral perovskite ferroelectrics, however, have been scarce. In this work, we have successfully synthesized homochiral lead-iodide perovskite ferroelectrics [(R)-N-(1-phenylethyl)ethane-1,2-diaminium]PbI4 and [(S)-N-(1-phenylethyl)ethane-1,2-diaminium]PbI4 by the chemical design of introducing a methyl group into the organic cation of the parent (N-benzylethane-1,2-diaminium)PbI4. Vibrational circular dichroism spectra identify the chiral mirroring relationship. They both undergo 222F2 type paraelectric-ferroelectric behavior at around 378 K coupled with clear ferroelastic domains “ON/OFF” switching. Besides, they exhibit an evident thermochromism with color change from orange-yellow to orange-red. To our knowledge, the discovery of integrated ferroelectricity, ferroelasticity, and reversible thermochromism in chiral perovskites is unprecedented. This finding offers a resultful path to design chiral perovskite ferroelectrics and is of great inspiration to the discovery of multifunctional perovskite materials. This work was recently published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021. (DOI: 10.1002/anie.202102195)
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