Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Matters Arising
  • Published:

Perovskite decomposition and missing crystal planes in HRTEM

Nature volume 594, pages E6–E7 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Matters Arising to this article was published on 09 June 2021

The Original Article was published on 15 July 2015

arising from Ning, Z. et al. Nature https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14563 (2015).

Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites have recently emerged as a new class of semiconductor for high-performance optoelectronic devices, but their extreme sensitivity to electron beam irradiation hinders our ability to obtain the intrinsic structures from high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) characterizations. Ning and co-workers1 reported lead sulfide (PbS) quantum dots in methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) solids with perfect lattice matching, on the basis of confirmation from HRTEM, electron diffraction and other studies1. However, I have found that some crystal planes were missing in their characterizations, and as demonstrated below, the material in their figures cannot be MAPbI3, but possibly lead iodide (PbI2)—the product of perovskite decomposed by electron-beam irradiation. This finding aims to raise awareness among researchers and avoid possible mistakes in the HRTEM characterization of electron-beam-sensitive materials in the future.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Ball and stick models, simulated electron diffraction patterns of MAPbI3, PbS and PbI2.

Data availability

All data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

References

  1. Ning, Z. et al. Quantum-dot-in-perovskite solids. Nature 523, 324–328 (2015).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Zhu, Y. et al. Direct atomic scale characterization of the surface structure and planar defects in the organic-inorganic hybrid CH3NH3PbI3 by cryo-TEM. Nano Energy 73, 104820 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Pham, H. T. et al. Insights into twinning formation in cubic and tetragonal multi-cation mixed-halide perovskite. ACS. Mater. Lett. 2, 415–424 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Rothmann, M. U. et al. Direct observation of intrinsic twin domains in tetragonal CH3NH3PbI3. Nat. Commun. 8, 14547 (2017).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Ding, J. et al. A self-powered photodetector based on a CH3NH3PbI3 single crystal with asymmetric electrodes. Cryst. Eng. Comm. 18, 4405–4411 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Dong, Q. et al. Electron-hole diffusion lengths >175 μm in solution-grown CH3NH3PbI3 single crystals. Science 347, 967–970 (2015).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Zhang, X. W. et al. Directly imaging the structure–property correlation of perovskites in crystalline microwires. J. Mater. Chem. A 7, 13305–13314 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Hammond, C. The Basics of Crystallography and Diffraction (Oxford Univ. Press, 2001).

  9. Fu, X. et al. Quantum confinement effects on charge-transfer between PbS quantum dots and 4-mercaptopyridine. J. Chem. Phys. 134, 024707 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Chen, S. et al. Atomic scale insights into structure instability and decomposition pathway of methylammonium lead iodide perovskite. Nat. Commun. 9, 4807 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Rothmann, M. U. et al. Microstructural characterisations of perovskite solar cells—from grains to interfaces: techniques, features, and challenges. Adv. Energy Mater. 7, 1700912 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Deng, Y. H. & Nest, L. G. Analysis of misidentifications in TEM characterization of organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite material. J. Microsc. https://doi.org/10.1111/jmi.13000 (2021).

  13. Li, Y. et al. Unravelling degradation mechanisms and atomic structure of organic–inorganic halide perovskites by cryo-EM. Joule 3, 2854–2866 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Zhang, D. et al. Atomic-resolution transmission electron microscopy of electron beam–sensitive crystalline materials. Science 359, 675–679 (2018).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Rothmann, M. U. et al. Atomic-scale microstructure of metal halide perovskite. Science 370, eabb5940 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I thank the original authors for discussions and anonymous reviewers for suggestions. I also appreciate encouragement from Y. Xiong. This friendly Matters Arising only aims to perfect the original paper and benefit the development of the academic community.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Yu-Hao Deng

Authors
  1. Yu-Hao Deng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All findings, simulations, data analysis and writing in this paper were undertaken by Y.-H.D.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yu-Hao Deng.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Deng, YH. Perovskite decomposition and missing crystal planes in HRTEM. Nature 594, E6–E7 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03423-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03423-4

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing