Alkylamine screening and zinc doping of highly luminescent 2D tin-halide perovskites for LED lighting

In recent years, two-dimensional (2D) layered tin halide perovskites have attracted much attention due to their excellent luminescence properties compared with their three-dimensional (3D) analogs. Here, we synthesized 2D perovskites of the form (RNH3)2SnBr4 through a facile hot-injection approach without the use of toxic tri-n-octylphosphine (TOP) as the solvent. We found that these compounds have strong photoluminescence (PL) emission with high PL quantum yields (QY) of 35% ((C6H13NH3)2SnBr4), 82% ((C8H17NH3)2SnBr4), 60% ((C12H25NH3)2SnBr4) and 50% ((C18H35NH3)2SnBr4). Among them, ((C6H13NH3)2SnBr4) was synthesized for the first time; however, (C18H36NH3)2SnBr4 perovskites showed the best stability with a PL QY decrease of less than 1% after 30 days under ambient air and humidity conditions. In addition, other 2D (C8H17NH3)2SnX4 (X = Br, I, or mixture) perovskites were prepared by adjusting the halide ratio, resulting in spectral tunability from yellow to red. Interestingly, through Zn2+ doping, the morphology became more uniform, and the PL stability was significantly improved. Finally, we used Zn2+-doped (C8H17NH3)2SnBr4 yellow phosphor to fabricate UV-pumped yellow LEDs. We expect these 2D perovskites to be promising phosphors in future solid-state lighting and display technologies.