Published in

Nature Research, Nature Communications, 1(14), 2023

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39127-8

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Energy conversion and storage via photoinduced polarization change in non-ferroelectric molecular [CoGa] crystals

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

AbstractTo alleviate the energy and environmental crisis, in the last decades, energy harvesting by utilizing optical control has emerged as a promising solution. Here we report a polar crystal that exhibits photoenergy conversion and energy storage upon light irradiation. The polar crystal consists of dinuclear [CoGa] molecules, which are oriented in a uniform direction inside the crystal lattice. Irradiation with green light induces a directional intramolecular electron transfer from the ligand to a low-spin CoIIIcentre, and the resultant light-induced high-spin CoIIexcited state is trapped at low temperature, realizing energy storage. Additionally, electric current release is observed during relaxation from the trapped light-induced metastable state to the ground state, because the intramolecular electron transfer in the relaxation process is accompanied with macroscopic polarization switching at the single-crystal level. It demonstrates that energy storage and conversion to electrical energy is realized in the [CoGa] crystals, which is different from typical polar pyroelectric compounds that exhibit the conversion of thermal energy into electricity.