Dielectric and ferroelectric sensing based on molecular recognition in Cu(1,10-phenlothroline)2SeO4·(diol) systems

The process of molecular recognition is the assembly of two or more molecules through weak interactions. Information in the process of molecular recognition can be transmitted to us via physical signals, which may find applications in sensing and switching. The conventional signals are mainly limited to light signal. Here, we describe the recognition of diols with Cu(1,10-phenlothroline)2SeO4 and the transduction of discrete recognition events into dielectric and/or ferroelectric signals. We observe that systems of Cu(1,10-phenlothroline)2SeO4·(diol) exhibit significant dielectric and/or ferroelectric dependence on different diol molecules. The compounds including ethane-1,2-diol or propane-1,2-diol just show small temperature-dependent dielectric anomalies and no reversible polarization, while the compound including ethane-1,3-diol shows giant temperature-dependent dielectric anomalies as well as ferroelectric reversible spontaneous polarization. This finding shows that dielectricity and/or ferroelectricity has the potential to be used for signalling molecular recognition.
Molecular recognition is an important biological process where guest and host molecules interact through non-covalent bonding. Ye et al. show that this can be sensed by the dielectric and ferroelectric signals of the final complexes in a series of metal-coordination compounds with different diol molecules.