Ferroelectricity in biological building blocks:Slipping on a banana peel?

作     者：Syed A.M.Tofail 

作者机构：Department of Physics and Bernal InstituteUniversity of Limerick National Technological ParkIreland 

出 版 物：《Journal of Advanced Dielectrics》 (先进电介质学报（英文）)

年 卷 期：2023年第13卷第4期

页      面：60-64页

学科分类：07[理学] 0701[理学-数学] 0702[理学-物理学] 

主　　题：Ferroelectricity piezoelectricity pyroelectricity biological materials ion channel voltage gating 

摘      要：Ferroelectricity in biological system has been anticipated both theoretically and experimentally over the past few decades.Claims of ferroelectricity in biological systems have given rise to confusion and methodological controversy.Over the years,a“loopof induced polarization in response to a varying applied electrical field and a consequent polarization reversal has prompted many researchers to claim ferroelectricity in biological structures and their building blocks.Other observers were skeptical about the methodology adopted in generating the data and questioned the validity of the claimed ferroelectricity as such,“loopcan also be obtained from linear capacitors.In a paper with somewhat tongue-in-cheek title,Jim Scott showed that ordinary banana peels could exhibit closed loops of electrical charge which closely resemble and thus could be misinterpreted as ferroelectric hysteresis loops in barium sodium niobate,BNN paraphrasing it as“banana.In this paper,we critically review ferroelectricity in biological system and argue that knowing the molecular and crystalline structure of biological building blocks and experimenting on such building blocks may be the way forward in revealing the“truenature of ferroelectricity in biological systems.