Issue 6, 2023

Dramatically improved optical anisotropy by realizing stereochemically active lone pairs in a sulfate system, K2SO4·HIO3

Abstract

Obtaining sulfate-based materials with large birefringence is of great challenge due to the weak polarizability anisotropy of the constituting spherical SO42− tetrahedron. Here, we have implemented a polyhedron of stereoactive lone pair cations, IO3 to the system to tackle the issue. Centimetre-sized single crystals of an alkali metal sulfate iodate, K2SO4·HIO3, have been readily grown by an accessible solution–evaporation method. Optical measurements on K2SO4·HIO3 single crystals reveal that the reported material exhibits a 70-fold increase in birefringence (ca. 0.14 at 589.3 nm) compared to that of the singular sulfate, K2SO4. In addition, K2SO4·HIO3 exhibits a blue-shifted UV cutoff edge of 275 nm, 25 nm shorter than that of α-HIO3, highlighting the key role of the SO42− tetrahedron in broadening the transmittance window.

Graphical abstract: Dramatically improved optical anisotropy by realizing stereochemically active lone pairs in a sulfate system, K2SO4·HIO3

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Research Article
Submitted
31 Jan 2023
Accepted
20 Feb 2023
First published
20 Feb 2023

Inorg. Chem. Front., 2023,10, 1919-1925

Dramatically improved optical anisotropy by realizing stereochemically active lone pairs in a sulfate system, K2SO4·HIO3

Z. Bai and K. M. Ok, Inorg. Chem. Front., 2023, 10, 1919 DOI: 10.1039/D3QI00192J

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