Disorder and Halide Distributions in Cesium Lead Halide Nanocrystals as Seen by Colloidal ¹³³Cs Nuclear Magnetic...

Colloidal nuclear magnetic resonance (cNMR) spectroscopy on inorganic cesium lead halide nanocrystals (CsPbX₃ NCs) is found to serve for noninvasive characterization and quantification of disorder within these structurally soft and labile particles. In particular, we show that ¹³³Cs cNMR is highly responsive to size variations from 3 to 11 nm or to altering the capping ligands on the surfaces of CsPbX₃ NCs. Distinct ¹³³Cs signals are attributed to the surface and core NC regions. Increased heterogeneous broadening of ¹³³Cs signals, observed for smaller NCs as well as for long-chain zwitterionic capping ligands (phosphocholines, phosphoethanol(propanol)amine, and sulfobetaines), can be attributed to more significant surface disorder and multifaceted surfaces (truncated cubes). On the contrary, capping with dimethyldidodecylammonium bromide (DDAB) successfully reduces signal broadening owing to better surface passivation and sharper (001)-bound cuboid shape. DFT calculations on various sizes of NCs corroborate the notion that the surface disorder propagates over several octahedral layers. ¹³³Cs NMR is a sensitive probe for studying halide gradients in mixed Br/Cl NCs, indicating bromide-rich surfaces and chloride-rich cores. On the contrary, mixed Br/I NCs exhibit homogeneous halide distributions.