Dehydration-activated structural phase transition in a two-dimensional hybrid double perovskite.

As a feasible lead-free scheme, organic-inorganic hybrid double perovskites show many excellent properties, including ferroelectricity, ferroelasticity, self-powered circularly polarized light detection and so on. In this work, the solid-to-solid structural phase transition of a two-dimensional hybrid double perovskite (CHA)4CuBiI8 was successfully activated via the dehydration of (CHA)4CuBiI8·H2O, which was proven by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and temperature-dependent dielectric measurements. Using variable-temperature single-crystal X-ray diffractometry, the cause behind the phase transition of (CHA)4CuBiI8 was determined to be the overall coordination of distortion and movement of the inorganic skeleton and thermal deformation of the cationic structure. In addition, the substance after dehydration shows good stability in multiple reversible switching during dielectric tests. The interesting dehydration-activated results of the material contribute towards a further expansion of the properties and potential application of hybrid double perovskites.