Out-of-Plane Mechanical Properties of 2D Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Perovskites by Nanoindentation

Two-dimensional (2D) layered hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (HOIPs) have demonstrated improved stability and promising photovoltaic performance. The mechanical properties of such functional materials are both fundamentally and practically important to achieve both high performance and mechanically stable (flexible) devices. Here, we report the mechanical properties of a series of 2D layered lead iodide HOIPs and investigate the role of structural subunits (e.g., variation of the length of the organic spacer molecules, R and the number of inorganic layers, n) in the mechanical properties. Although 2D HOIPs have much lower nominal elastic modulus and hardness than 3D HOIPs, larger n number and shorter R lead to stiffer materials. Density functional theory simulations showed a trend similar to the experimental results. We compared these findings with other 2D layered crystals and shed light on routes to further tune the out-of-plane mechanical properties of 2D layered HOIPs.