Dynamics of a caged imidazolium cation-toward understanding the order-disorder phase transition and the switchable dielectric constant

A molecular compass-like behaviour is found in a perovskite-type cage compound (HIm)(2)[KCo(CN)(6)] (HIm = imidazolium cation). The dynamic changes in the HIm cation from the static to rotating state along with the rearrangement of the host cage result in switchable and anisotropic dielectric constants.