Protein-Mediated Aqueous Synthesis of Stable Methylammonium Lead Bromide Perovskite Nanocrystals: Implications for Biological and Environmental Applications
Masoud Aminzare, Ehsan Hamzehpoor, Sara Mahshid, Noémie‐Manuelle Dorval Courchesne
Abstract
Lead halide perovskites (HPs) hold great potential for the next generation of optoelectronic devices. However, their promise for real-world applications has not been realized because of their poor phase stability and decomposition when subjected to heat, moisture, and light. Here, we report a facile strategy for synthesizing highly stable, compositionally rich, and size-controlled methylammonium lead HP [CH3NH3PbX3 (X = Cl, Br, and I)] nanocrystals (HPNCs) in an aqueous environment, assisted by diverse proteins as capping agents. Freeing HPNC production of the complications of organic solvents provides much needed flexibility for the further cost-effective and efficient development of these structures. Stabilized by a delicate ionic balance during synthesis and via interactions with proteins, the synthesized protein-HPNCs exhibit high aqueous and colloidal stability over months. Protein capping also yields promising optical characteristics, including narrow emission wavelength and a photoluminescence quantum yield of up to ∼50%. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this approach can be extended to the synthesis of protein-mediated HPNCs with different chemistries and protein compositions. We anticipate that this method can serve as a general platform that can be used for the fabrication of a wide range of metal HPs for many biological and environmental applications including cell imaging and sensing.