Betaine potassium iodide dihydrate: a new compound of betaine

Betaine potassium iodide dihydrate, [(CH3)3N+CH2COO-]2.KI.2H2O, BKI for short, is a new compound of the aminoacid betaine with a triclinic symmetry and the space group P1-bar at room temperature. The study of dielectric properties provided evidence for the existence of a structural phase transition occurring around 100 K. The spontaneous electric polarization is zero in both phases. A study of dielectric dispersion disclosed two relaxational modes with different relevance in the high and in the low temperature phases. The main features observed in BKI are consistently described by the Landau theory, by assuming a quadratic coupling between the primary order parameter and the electric polarization. (author). Letter-to-the-editor