Rational growth of highly luminescent CsPbBr3 nanoparticles via alkali metal doping-enabled modification of glass networks

Abstract

Embedding halide perovskite nanoparticles (NPs) into glasses can be regarded as a feasible approach to improve their long-term stability when they are exposed to air or moisture. However, it remains elusive to rationally grow highly luminescent halide perovskite NPs owing to poor understanding of the relationship between glass network topology and NP precipitation. Here, by introducing alkali metal ions as “B-phase structural scissors”, the precipitation and aggregation of NPs are optimized based on glass network topology modulation, which boosts their photoluminescence performance. After Li doping, the photoluminescence quantum yield of CsPbBr3 perovskite NPs embedded in glass increases by 39% with respect to that of the undoped counterpart. The alkali metal ions are utilized to reduce thermal activation energy from 130.04 KJ mol-1 to 125.35 KJ mol-1 according to thermodynamics analysis, which corresponds to an increase in the size of the NPs. Benefiting from excellent chemical inertness, the luminescence intensity of as-made CsPbBr3 NP embedded glass retains near unity after soaking them in water for 180 days. The utilization of alkali metals as a facile strategy to modify the glass network enables improved performance of target NPs, thereby providing deeper insights into the design of host-dependent NP-functionalized glass.