Controlled Growth of Highly Oriented Perovskite Crystals in Polymer Solutions via Selective Solvent Vapor Diffusion

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have garnered significant attention in optoelectronics owing to their outstanding tunable optical characteristics. Controlled growth of perovskite nanocrystals from solutions is key for controlling the emission intensity and photoluminescence lifetime of perovskites. In particular, most studies have focused on controlling the crystallization of perovskite through chemical treatment using chelating ligands or physical treatment via antisolvent diffusion, and there exists a trade-off between the photoluminescence intensity and lifetime of perovskites. Herein, a selective solvent vapor-assisted crystallization with the aid of a functional polymer, which nanoscale perovskite crystals are grown andante from precursor solution, is presented for tuning the crystallization and optical properties of a common halide perovskite, methylammonium lead bromide (MAPbBr3). The proposed method here produces perovskite nanocrystals in the range of 200-300 nm. The spin-coated thin film formed from the perovskite solution exhibits strong green photoluminescence with a long lifetime. The effects of the functional group and polymer dosage on the crystallization of MAPbBr3 are systematically investigated, and the crystallization mechanism is explained based on a modified LaMer model. This study provides an advanced solution process for precisely controlling perovskite crystallization to enhance their optical properties for next-generation optoelectronic devices. The proposed unconventional solvent vapor-assisted crystallization method enables growth rate of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite crystals in better controlled manner. Together with an additive of the metal-coordinating functional polymer, i.e., polyvinylpyrrolidone, the resultant perovskite crystals exhibit an exquisite optical property with strong green emission and long lifetime carriers.image

Automated summary

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have attracted significant attention in optoelectronics due to their tunable optical characteristics. This study presents a method of selectively growing nanoscale perovskite crystals using a functional polymer-assisted solvent vapor-assisted crystallization process to control their crystallization and optical properties. The addition of a metal-coordinating functional polymer results in perovskite crystals with strong green emission and long carrier lifetime.