Giant anisotropic thermal expansion actuated by thermodynamically assisted reorientation of imidazoliums in a single crystal

Zi Shuo Yao*, Hanxi Guan, Yoshihito Shiota, Chun Ting He, Xiao Lei Wang, Shu Qi Wu, Xiaoyan Zheng, Sheng Qun Su, Kazunari Yoshizawa, Xueqian Kong, Osamu Sato, Jun Tao

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

41 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Materials demonstrating unusual large positive and negative thermal expansion are fascinating for their potential applications as high-precision microscale actuators and thermal expansion compensators for normal solids. However, manipulating molecular motion to execute huge thermal expansion of materials remains a formidable challenge. Here, we report a single-crystal Cu(II) complex exhibiting giant thermal expansion actuated by collective reorientation of imidazoliums. The circular molecular cations, which are rotationally disordered at a high temperature and statically ordered at a low temperature, demonstrate significant reorientation in the molecular planes. Such atypical molecular motion, revealed by variable-temperature single crystal X-ray diffraction and solid-state NMR analyses, drives an exceptionally large positive thermal expansion and a negative thermal expansion in a perpendicular direction of the crystal. The consequent large shape change (~10%) of bulk material, with remarkable durability, suggests that this complex is a strong candidate as a microscale thermal actuating material.

Original languageEnglish
Article number4805
JournalNature Communications
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2019

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