Metal halide perovskites represent a flourishing area of research, driven by both their potential application in photo-voltaics and optoelectronics, and for the fundamental science underpinning their unique optoelectronic properties. The advent of colloidal methods for the synthesis of halide perovskite nanocrystals has brought to the attention inter-esting aspects of this new type of materials, above all their defect-tolerance. This review aims to provide an updated survey of this fast-moving field, with a main focus on their colloidal synthesis. We examine the chemistry and the ca-pability of different colloidal synthetic routes to control the shape, size and optical properties of the resulting nano-crystals. We also provide an up to date overview of their post-synthesis transformations, and summarize the various so-lution processes aimed at fabricating halide perovskite-based nanocomposites. We then review the fundamental optical properties of halide perovskite nanocrystals, by focusing on their linear optical properties, on the effects of quantum confinement and, then, on the current knowledge of their exciton binding energies. We also discuss the emergence of non-linear phenomena such as multiphoton absorption, biexcitons and carrier multiplication. At last, we provide an outlook in the field, with the most cogent open questions and possible future directions.

Metal Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals: Synthesis, Post-Synthesis Modifications and Their Optical Properties

Metal halide perovskites represent a flourishing area of research, which is driven by both their potential application in photovoltaics and optoelectronics and by the fundamental science behind their unique optoelectronic properties. The emergence of new colloidal methods for the synthesis of halide perovskite nanocrystals, as well as the interesting characteristics of this new type of material, has attracted the attention of many researchers. This review aims to provide an up-to-date survey of this fast-moving field and will mainly focus on the different colloidal synthesis approaches that have been developed. We will examine the chemistry and the capability of different colloidal synthetic routes with regard to controlling the shape, size, and optical properties of the resulting nanocrystals. We will also provide an up-to-date overview of their postsynthesis transformations, and summarize the various solution processes that are aimed at fabricating halide perovskite-based nanocomposites. Furthermore, we...

Metal Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals: Synthesis, Post-Synthesis Modifications, and Their Optical Properties.

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are intrinsically porous extended solids formed by coordination bonding between organic ligands and metal ions or clusters. High electrical conductivity is rare in M...

Electrically Conductive Metal-Organic Frameworks.

The presence of a sample in the neutron field of a nuclear reactor creates a perturbation of the local neutron fluxes. In general, the interpretation of the sample activation due to thermal and epithermal neutrons requires the knowledge of two corrective parameters: the thermal neutron self-shielding factor, Gth, and the resonance neutron self-shielding factor, Gres. Thermal neutron self-shielding factors in different materials (Al, Au, Cd, Co, Cu, Eu, Gd, In, Ir, Mo, Ni, Pt, Pb, Rh, Sc, Sm and Ta) and different geometries (foils, wires, spheres and) have been calculated by using the MCNP code.

Nuclear Instruments and Methods

Metal-halide perovskites have rapidly emerged as one of the most promising materials of the 21st century, with many exciting properties and great potential for a broad range of applications, from photovoltaics to optoelectronics and photocatalysis. The ease with which metal-halide perovskites can be synthesized in the form of brightly luminescent colloidal nanocrystals, as well as their tunable and intriguing optical and electronic properties, has attracted researchers from different disciplines of science and technology. In the last few years, there has been a significant progress in the shape-controlled synthesis of perovskite nanocrystals and understanding of their properties and applications. In this comprehensive review, researchers having expertise in different fields (chemistry, physics, and device engineering) of metal-halide perovskite nanocrystals have joined together to provide a state of the art overview and future prospects of metal-halide perovskite nanocrystal research.

State of the Art and Prospects for Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals.

The impact-induced deposition of Al13 clusters with icosahedral structure on Ni(0 0 1) surface was studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation using Finnis–Sinclair potentials. The incident kinetic energy (Ein) ranged from 0.01 to 30 eV per atom. The structural and dynamical properties of Al clusters on Ni surfaces were found to be strongly dependent on the impact energy. At much lower energy, the Al cluster deposited on the surface as a bulk molecule. However, the original icosahedral structure was transformed to the fcc-like one due to the interaction and the structure mismatch between the Al cluster and Ni surface. With increasing the impinging energy, the cluster was deformed severely when it contacted the substrate, and then broken up due to dense collision cascade. The cluster atoms spread on the surface at last. When the impact energy was higher than 11 eV, the defects, such as Al substitutions and Ni ejections, were observed. The simulation indicated that there exists an optimum energy range, which is suitable for Al epitaxial growth in layer by layer. In addition, at higher impinging energy, the atomic exchange between Al and Ni atoms will be favourable to surface alloying.

Nuclear instruments and methods in physics research section B : beam interactions with materials and atoms

As a member of the lead-halide perovskite family, inorganic perovskite CsPbBr3 exhibits excellent optical and electrical properties with higher stability to the environment. However, former efforts to obtain large-size CsPbBr3 single crystals with satisfactory quality using low temperature solution methods reached limited results. In this work, we have studied the growth of CsPbBr3 crystals using the antisolvent vapor-assisted crystallization (AVC) method. By adjusting the mole ratio of PbBr2 and CsBr, the phase diagram of the final products is acquired. Five regions are identified, including the Cs4PbBr6 single phase region, Cs4PbBr6 and CsPbBr3 two phases region, CsPbBr3 single phase region, CsPbBr3 and PbBr2·2[(CH3)2SO] metastable two phases region, and CsPbBr3 and PbBr2·2[(CH3)2SO] two phases region. Three methods are adopted to improve the size and crystalline quality of CsPbBr3. The growth rate is effectively tailored by diluting the antisolvent MeOH solution using DMSO to reduce the MeOH vapor pres...

Centimeter-Sized Inorganic Lead Halide Perovskite CsPbBr3 Crystals Grown by an Improved Solution Method

Tin-halide perovskite nanocrystals are a viable precursor for lead-free, high-efficiency active layers for photovoltaic cells. We describe a new synthetic procedure for quantum-confined Cs2SnI6 nanocrystals with size-dependent band gaps in the long-visible to near-infrared (1.38–1.47 eV). Hot injection synthesis produces particles with no organic capping ligands, with average diameters that increase from 12 ± 2.8 nm to 38 ± 4.1 nm with increasing reaction temperature. The band gap, energies of the first excitonic peak, ground-state bleach peak (in the transient absorption spectrum), and photoluminescence peak depend linearly on the inverse square of diameter, consistent with quantum-confined excitons with an effective mass of (0.12 ± 0.02)m0, where m0 is the mass of an electron, a factor of 4.6 smaller than that in the bulk material. Transient absorption measurements show that approximately 90% of the bleach amplitude decays within 30 ps, probably because of carrier trapping on unpassivated surface sites....

Ligand-Free, Quantum-Confined Cs2SnI6 Perovskite Nanocrystals

X-ray detection is of great significance for medical diagnostics, industrial non-destructive inspection, nuclear plants and scientific research. However, high sensitivity is needed for X-ray detectors to reduce the radiation dose applied to human bodies for the applications of medical imaging and security checks. Here, we reported sensitive X-ray detectors made of solution-grown inorganic lead perovskite CsPbBr3 single crystals and the synthesis of high-quality inorganic lead perovskite CsPbBr3 single crystals using an improved low temperature solution method, which exhibited high transmittance, mobility and mobility–lifetime products. By designing the detector in an asymmetric electrode configuration, ion migration was effectively suppressed under a high voltage with a low dark current and an outstanding photoresponse. The optimized detector exhibited high sensitivity of 1256 μC Gy−1 cm−2 for 80 kVp X-ray detection under a relatively low electric field of 20 V mm−1, which was 60 times higher than that of commercially used α-Se detectors. Due to its facile synthesis, low cost, long-term stability, and high detection sensitivity, CsPbBr3 is expected to be an outstanding candidate for commercialized sensitive X-ray detectors.

High-sensitivity X-ray detectors based on solution-grown caesium lead bromide single crystals

An important factor for the high performance of light-harvesting devices is the presence of surface trappings. Therefore, understanding and controlling the carrier recombination of the organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite surface is critical for the device design and optimization. Here, we report the use of aluminum zinc oxide (AZO) as the anode to construct a p–n junction structure MAPbBr3 nuclear radiation detector. The AZO/MAPbBr3/Au detector can tolerate an electrical field of 500 V·cm–1 and exhibit a very low leakage current of ∼9 nA, which is 1 order of magnitude lower than that of the standard ohmic contact device. The interface state density of AZO/MAPbBr3 contact was reduced from 2.17 × 1010 to 8.7 × 108 cm–2 by annealing at 100 °C under an Ar atmosphere. Consequently, a photocurrent to dark current ratio of 190 was realized when exposed to a green light-emitting diode with a wavelength of 520 nm (∼200 mW·cm–2). Simultaneously, a high X-ray sensitivity of ∼529 μC·Gyair–1 cm–2 was achieved under 80 kVp X-ray at an electric field of 50 V·cm–1. These results demonstrate the use of surface engineering to further optimize the performance of MAPbBr3 detectors, which have many potential applications in medical and security detection with low radiation dose brought to the human body.

Yadong Xu

Papers

Nuclear instruments and methods in physics research section B : beam interactions with materials and atoms

Centimeter-Sized Inorganic Lead Halide Perovskite CsPbBr3 Crystals Grown by an Improved Solution Method

Ligand-Free, Quantum-Confined Cs2SnI6 Perovskite Nanocrystals

High-sensitivity X-ray detectors based on solution-grown caesium lead bromide single crystals

Enhanced X-ray Sensitivity of MAPbBr 3 Detector by Tailoring the Interface-States Density