Luminescent zero-dimensional organic metal halide hybrids with near-unity quantum efficiency

Chenkun Zhou, Haoran Lin, Yu Tian, Zhao Yuan, Ronald Clark, Banghao Chen, Lambertus J. Van De Burgt, Jamie C. Wang, Yan Zhou, Kenneth Hanson, Quinton J. Meisner, Jennifer Neu, Tiglet Besara, Theo Siegrist, Eric Lambers, Peter Djurovich, Biwu Ma

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

503 Scopus citations

Abstract

Single crystalline zero-dimensional (0D) organic-inorganic hybrid materials with perfect host-guest structures have been developed as a new generation of highly efficient light emitters. Here we report a series of lead-free organic metal halide hybrids with a 0D structure, (C4N2H14X)4SnX6 (X = Br, I) and (C9NH20)2SbX5 (X = Cl), in which the individual metal halide octahedra (SnX64-) and quadrangular pyramids (SbX52-) are completely isolated from each other and surrounded by the organic ligands C4N2H14X+ and C9NH20+, respectively. The isolation of the photoactive metal halide species by the wide band gap organic ligands leads to no interaction or electronic band formation between the metal halide species, allowing the bulk materials to exhibit the intrinsic properties of the individual metal halide species. These 0D organic metal halide hybrids can also be considered as perfect host-guest systems, with the metal halide species periodically doped in the wide band gap matrix. Highly luminescent, strongly Stokes shifted broadband emissions with photoluminescence quantum efficiencies (PLQEs) of close to unity were realized, as a result of excited state structural reorganization of the individual metal halide species. Our discovery of highly luminescent single crystalline 0D organic-inorganic hybrid materials as perfect host-guest systems opens up a new paradigm in functional materials design.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)586-593
Number of pages8
JournalChemical Science
Volume9
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2018
Externally publishedYes

Funding

The authors acknowledge the Florida State University for financial support through the Energy and Materials Initiative. Jamie C. Wang acknowledges the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE-1449440. The excitation power dependent luminescence measurements were performed on a transient absorption spectrometer supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CHE-1531629. The authors also thank Dr Lei Zhu for providing access to a fluorescence spectrophotometer and Dr Hanwei Gao for providing access to the instrument for the photostability test.

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