Phase transition and ferroelectricity of composites based on ferroelectric metal-organic framework of [NH4][Zn(HCOO)3]

Abstract The study suggests a simple approach to improve phase transition properties and ferroelectricity of a typical ferroelectric metal-organic framework of [NH4][Zn(HCOO)3] (AmZn) using silicon dioxides nanoparticles (nSiO2). It is shown that the first-order transition type of AmZn is not changed under the influence of nSiO2. Moreover, the phase transition temperature of AmZn significantly increased with increasing the nSiO2 content from 0 to 40 wt%. Besides, the addition of small nSiO2 content (< 11%) led to rising spontaneous saturation and remnant polarizations. The study also indicated difficulties in obtaining the saturation P-E loops at high nSiO2 content.