One-dimensional organic lead halide perovskites with efficient bluish white-light emission

Organic-inorganic hybrid metal halide perovskites, an emerging class of solution processable photoactive materials, welcome a new member with a one-dimensional structure. Herein we report the synthesis, crystal structure and photophysical properties of one-dimensional organic lead bromide perovskites, C₄N₂H₁₄PbBr₄, in which the edge sharing octahedral lead bromide chains [PbBr₄ ^2-]_∞ are surrounded by the organic cations C₄N₂H₁₄ ²⁺ to form the bulk assembly of core-shell quantum wires. This unique one-dimensional structure enables strong quantum confinement with the formation of self-trapped excited states that give efficient bluish white-light emissions with photoluminescence quantum efficiencies of approximately 20% for the bulk single crystals and 12% for the microscale crystals. This work verifies once again that one-dimensional systems are favourable for exciton self-trapping to produce highly efficient below-gap broadband luminescence, and opens up a new route towards superior light emitters based on bulk quantum materials.