Mixing Spacer Cations to Control Luminance and Stability of Quasi-2D Perovskites
Zhilin Ren a, Muhammad Umair Ali a, Aleksandra B. Djurišić a
a Department of Physics, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2024 Conference (MATSUS24)
#2Dpero - 2D perovskites: chemical versatility, photophysics and applications
Barcelona, Spain, 2024 March 4th - 8th
Organizers: Claudio Quarti and Yana Vaynzof
Oral, Muhammad Umair Ali, presentation 477
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsus.2024.477
Publication date: 18th December 2023

Quasi-2D perovskites with Ruddlesden-Popper structure, with the formula C2An-1PbnBr3n+1 , where C is a bulky spacer cation, A is a small organic cation (methylammonium (MA), or formamidinium (FA)) or Cs+, and n is the number of octahedral layers between the spacer cation bilayers, have been attracting increasing attention for applications in light emission in blue and green spectral ranges. Quasi-2D perovskites with different spacer cations exhibit vastly different crystallization, photoluminescence, and stability. One of the methods to adjust crystallization and achieve favourable energy landscape for efficient funnelling to result in bright sky-blue or green emissions is to use a mixture of spacer cations. In this work, we investigated the use of different carboxylic group containing spacers, including 5-ammonium valeric acid (5AVA), 4-ammonium butyric acid (4ABA), 3-ammonium propionic acid (3APA) and their mixtures, for preparation of n=2 and n=3 quasi-2D perovskites with MA and FA small cations. The films generally exhibited bright emission, which could be further increased with different additives, and the cations used affected the ratios of different n phases present in the film, and ultimately emission colour. However, the films exhibited strong tendency toward disproportionation upon exposure to elevated temperature or ambient. Thus, we explored mixing the carboxylic group containing spacers (5AVA was selected as it produces very bright films) with a spacer cation forming films with exceptional stability, 2-thiopheneethylammonium, namely TEA. For the optimal 5AVA-TEA ratio, we can obtain films with predominantly n=2 phase even after ambient exposure for n=2 solution stoichiometry, very different from pure 5AVA-based films (entirely dominated by n=1 phase after 3 min ambient exposure), as well as pure TEA-based films (showing prominent presence of n=1 and n=2 phases with no significant change with ambient exposure). For n=3, pure TEA-based films again show negligible change with atmosphere exposure, while for pure 5AVA there is a significant presence of 3D perovskite.  In addition, for the same solution stoichiometry, changing the small cation affects the crystallization and consequently light emission, with sky blue emission achievable only for MA small cation and n=2 solution stoichiometry. The effect of solution composition (spacer cations used and their ratios to small cations) on the phase composition of resulting film and consequently light emission is discussed.

This work was supported by the Seed Funding for Basic Research of the University of Hong Kong, and the NSFC project 6207032617.

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