Alloy CsCd xPb1- xBr3Perovskite Nanocrystals: The Role of Surface Passivation in Preserving Composition and Blue Emission

Muhammad Imran*, Julien Ramade, Francesco Di Stasio, Manuela De Franco, Joka Buha, Sandra Van Aert, Luca Goldoni, Simone Lauciello, Mirko Prato, Ivan Infante, Sara Bals, Liberato Manna

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Various strategies have been proposed to engineer the band gap of metal halide perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) while preserving their structure and composition and thus ensuring spectral stability of the emission color. An aspect that has only been marginally investigated is how the type of surface passivation influences the structural/color stability of AMX3 perovskite NCs composed of two different M2+ cations. Here, we report the synthesis of blue-emitting Cs-oleate capped CsCdxPb1-xBr3 NCs, which exhibit a cubic perovskite phase containing Cd-rich domains of Ruddlesden-Popper phases (RP phases). The RP domains spontaneously transform into pure orthorhombic perovskite ones upon NC aging, and the emission color of the NCs shifts from blue to green over days. On the other hand, postsynthesis ligand exchange with various Cs-carboxylate or ammonium bromide salts, right after NC synthesis, provides monocrystalline NCs with cubic phase, highlighting the metastability of RP domains. When NCs are treated with Cs-carboxylates (including Cs-oleate), most of the Cd2+ ions are expelled from NCs upon aging, and the NCs phase evolves from cubic to orthorhombic and their emission color changes from blue to green. Instead, when NCs are coated with ammonium bromides, the loss of Cd2+ ions is suppressed and the NCs tend to retain their blue emission (both in colloidal dispersions and in electroluminescent devices), as well as their cubic phase, over time. The improved compositional and structural stability in the latter cases is ascribed to the saturation of surface vacancies, which may act as channels for the expulsion of Cd2+ ions from NCs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)10641-10652
Number of pages12
JournalChemistry of Materials
Volume32
Issue number24
Early online date4 Dec 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 22 Dec 2020

Funding

We acknowledge funding from the FLAG-ERA JTC2019 project PeroGas. S.B., and S.V.A. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (ERC Consolidator Grants #815128—REALNANO and #770887—PICOMETRICS) and from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO, Belgium) through project funding G.0267.18N. F.D.S. acknowledges the funding from ERC starting grant NANOLED (851794). The computational work was carried out on the Dutch National e-infrastructure with the support of the SURF Cooperative.

FundersFunder number
European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program
NANOLED
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme815128, 770887, 851794
European Research Council
Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

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