Ferroelectric Liquids at Room Temperature

The article titled “Investigating room temperature ferroelectric nematogens and their structure–property relationships” has been published in the journal Nature Communications. The authors are Prof. Ewa Górecka and Prof. Damian Pociecha from the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Warsaw.

Together with colleagues from the University of Aberdeen, we successfully synthesized and investigated several dozen new ferroelectric nematic materials, which allowed us to identify key relationships between molecular structure and the stability of electric dipole ordering. These studies significantly expanded the family of ferroelectric liquids operating at temperatures close to room temperature. Precise molecular design enables control over the viscosity of ferroelectric materials and, consequently, over the switching dynamics of spontaneous electric polarization, as well as the balance between switching speed and long-term polarization retention. This brings ferroelectric liquid crystals closer to practical applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices.

Link to the article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-69484-z