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The growth of nanocrystals (NCs) from metal oxide-based substrates with exposed high-energy facets is of particular importance for many important applications, such as solar cells as photoanodes due to the high reactivity of these facets. The hydrothermal method remains a current trend for the synthesis of metal oxide nanostructures in general and titanium dioxide (TiO2) in particular since the calcination of the resulting powder after the completion of the hydrothermal method no longer requires a high temperature. This work aims to use a rapid hydrothermal method to synthesize numerous TiO2-NCs, namely, TiO2 nanosheets (TiO2-NSs), TiO2 nanorods (TiO2-NRs), and nanoparticles (TiO2-NPs). In these ideas, a simple non-aqueous one-pot solvothermal method was employed to prepare TiO2-NSs using tetrabutyl titanate Ti(OBu)4 as a precursor and hydrofluoric acid (HF) as a morphology control agent. Ti(OBu)4 alone was subjected to alcoholysis in ethanol, yielding only pure nanoparticles (TiO2-NPs). Subsequently, in this work, the hazardous chemical HF was replaced by sodium fluoride (NaF) as a means of controlling morphology to produce TiO2-NRs. The latter method was required for the growth of high purity brookite TiO2 NRs structure, the most difficult TiO2 polymorph to synthesize. The fabricated components are then morphologically evaluated using equipment, such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), electron diffraction (SAED), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). In the results, the TEM image of the developed NCs shows the presence of TiO2-NSs with an average side length of about 20–30 nm and a thickness of 5–7 nm. In addition, the image TEM shows TiO2-NRs with diameters between 10 and 20 nm and lengths between 80 and 100 nm, together with crystals of smaller size. The phase of the crystals is good, confirmed by XRD. The anatase structure, typical of TiO2-NS and TiO2-NPs, and the high-purity brookite-TiO2-NRs structure, were evident in the produced nanocrystals, according to XRD. SAED patterns confirm that the synthesis of high quality single crystalline TiO2-NSs and TiO2-NRs with the exposed {001} facets are the exposed facets, which have the upper and lower dominant facets, high reactivity, high surface energy, and high surface area. TiO2-NSs and TiO2-NRs could be grown, corresponding to about 80% and 85% of the {001} outer surface area in the nanocrystal, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic–inorganic halide organometal perovskites have demonstrated very promising performance in optoelectronic applications, but their relatively poor chemical and colloidal stability hampers the further improvement of devices based on these materials. Perovskite material engineering is crucial for achieving high photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) and long stability. Herein, these goals are attained by incorporating bulk-structure CsPbBr3, which prevents colloidal degradation, into polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) polymer in thin-disk form. This technology can potentially realize future disk lasers with no optical and structural contributions from the polymer. The polycrystalline CsPbBr3 perovskite particles were simply obtained by using a mechanical processing technique. The CsPbBr3 was then incorporated into the PMMA polymer using a solution blending method. The polymer enhanced the PLQYs by removing the surface trap states and increasing the water resistance and stability under ambient conditions. In our experimental investigation, the CsPbBr3/PMMA composites were extraordinarily stable and remained strongly luminescent after water immersion for three months and air exposure for over one year, maintaining 80% of their initial photoluminescence intensity. The CsPbBr3/PMMA thin disk produced amplified spontaneous emission for a long time in air and for more than two weeks in water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The triplet energy transfer mechanism of novel poly(9,9-di-n-octylflourenyl-2,7-diyl) (PFO)/poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MEH-PPV)/CsPbBr3 perovskite quantum dot (PQD) hybrid thin films was comprehensively investigated. The concentrations of PFO and MEH-PPV in all the specimens were fixed, while the PQD content was varied with various weight ratios and premixed by a solution blending method before it was spin-coated onto glass substrates. The triplet non-radiative Förster resonance energy transfers (FRETs) in the PFO/MEH-PPV/PQDs ternary blend, the dual FRET from PFO to both PQDs and MEH-PPV, and the secondary FRET from PQDs to MEH-PPV were observed. The values of the Förster radius (Ro) of FRET from PFO to MEH-PPV in the presence of various PQD contents (Case I) increased from 92.3 to 104.7 Å, and they decreased gradually from 68.0 to 39.5 Å for FRET from PFO to PQDs in the presence of MEH-PPV (Case II). These Ro values in both cases confirmed the dominance of FRET in ternary hybrid thin films. Upon increasing the PQD content, the distance between the donor and acceptor molecules (RDA) and the conjugation length (Aπ) in both cases gradually decreased. The small values of Ro, RDA, and Aπ with a decrease in the energy transfer lifetime (τET) due to an increase in the PQD contents in both Cases I and II confirmed the efficient FRET in the hybrid. To prevent intermolecular transfer in PFO, the concentrations of MEH-PPV (Case I) and PQDs (Case II) should be decreased to a range of 0.57–0.39 mM and increased in the range of 1.42–7.25 mM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) threshold in CsPbBr 3 quantum dot films is systematically reduced by introducing high quality TiO 2 compact layer grown by atomic-layer deposition. Uniform and pinhole-free TiO 2 films of thickness 10, 20 and 50 nm are used as a substrates for CsPbBr 3 quantum dot films to enhance amplified spontaneous emission performance. The reduction is attributed indirectly to the improved morphology of TiO 2 compact layer and subsequently CsPbBr 3 active layer as grown on better quality substrates. This is quantified by the reduced roughness of the obtained films to less than 5 nm with 50 nm TiO 2 substrate. Considering the used growth method for the quantum dot film, the improved substrate morphology maintains better the structure of the used quantum dots in the precursor solution. This results in better absorption and hence lower threshold of ASE. Besides that, the improved film quality results further in reducing light scattering and hence additional slight optical enhancement. The work demonstrates a potential venue to reduce the amplified spontaneous emission threshold of quantum dot films and therefore enhanced their optical performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]