Ferroelectric polarization in nylon-3

It has been theoretically predicted that remanent polarization in odd nylons increases in a linear fashion with decreasing the molecular size of the amide unit, and can reach values comparable to those of inorganic ferroelectrics for lower order odd-nylons. However, such large remanent polarizations have never been experimentally measured due to challenges in processing low order nylons such as nylon-3 into films, and into their ferroelectric phase. Here, we report solution-processed ferroelectric capacitors fabricated from linear chain nylon-3 with excellent dielectric performance and demonstrate a giant remanent polarization of 16.1 ± 0.5 μC cm⁻², which is the record high remanent polarization reported for ferroelectric polymers and is comparable to values that are reported for inorganic ferroelectric ceramics. Based on our analysis of ferroelectric odd nylons, we predict that nylon-1 could achieve remanent polarization values approaching 40 μC cm⁻², far exceeding those reported for any ferroelectric polymer to date.