Topochemical Crystal Transformation from a Distorted to a Nearly Perfect Kagome Cuprate

Single crystals are indispensable for understanding the fundamental properties of materials, although obtaining them are often challenging. To investigate the magnetic properties of a kagome-lattice antiferromagnet, we have performed a topochemical crystal transformation from a copper mineral volborthite with a distorted kagome lattice into another copper mineral vesignieite with an almost perfect kagome lattice. A millimeter-sized crystal of vesignieite, which is difficult to prepare via direct chemical reactions, has been successfully obtained. Magnetization measurements on the crystals reveal a unique magnetic order with weak-ferromagnetic moments lying within the kagome plane and successive anomalies in the magnetization curve, which would give important information on the magnetic order of the kagome-lattice antiferromagnet. The present results demonstrate a novel route via the topochemical crystal transformation in preparing a hard-to-obtain crystal.