Nitroprusside as a promising building block to assemble an organic-inorganic hybrid for thermo-responsive switching materials.

We present a new hybrid compound, namely (Me2NH2)[KFe(CN)5(NO)], possessing a unique nitroprusside-based inorganic host framework in 4-connected sra topology encapsulating organic guest cations. The flexible host-guest hydrogen bonds and synchronously deformed inorganic framework give rise to thermal-responsive switching behaviours on both thermal expansion and nonlinear optical properties during the phase transition at around room temperature.

Room-temperature optic-electric duple bistabilities induced by plastic transition.

We disclosed that acetamidinium perchlorate is a plastic crystal undergoing a near-room-temperature plastic transition. Thanks to drastic symmetry breaking during the plastic transition, it displays remarkable nonlinear optical switching with a high on/off contrast and a superior reversibility, as well as rapid dielectric switching between the high and low dielectric states.