Publication date: 16th July 2025
Exploration of metal halide perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) has thus far focused on lead-based materials; however, lower-toxicity alternatives are naturally of immense interest. Tin is a primary candidate to replace lead, owing to its similar electronic structure and ionic radius. Synthetic procedures to prepare tin halide perovskite (THP) NCs are scarce. We report a room-temperature synthesis protocol yielding THP NCs, wherein precursor solutions of metal-halide trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) adducts and cation-oleate are combined to yield perovskite NCs. Near monodisperse NCs are obtained for formamidinium, methylammonium, and cesium tin halides exceeding the reported compositions. The exclusion of amines prevents phase competition with quasi 2D materials thus giving direct access to the weak optical signals of the 3D nanocrystals. Our synthetic procedure enables tuning of the particle sizes by adjusting the ratio of tin halide to TOPO. At the example of CsSnI3 NCs between 6 and 20 nm we can assess the size dependent properties of tin based NCs for the first time. Capping with novel phospholipid zwitterionic ligands strongly enhances the colloidal stability of the labile particles allowing for multiple purification cycles with polar antisolvent and a very broad span of concentrations.