Abstract
The precise stacking of different two-dimensional (2D) structures such as graphene and MoS2 has reinvigorated the field of 2D materials, revealing exotic phenomena at their interfaces1,2. These unique interfaces are typically constructed using mechanical or deposition-based methods to build a heterostructure one monolayer at a time2,3. By contrast, self-assembly is a scalable technique, where complex materials can selectively form in solution4,5,6. Here we show a synthetic strategy for the self-assembly of layered perovskite–non-perovskite heterostructures into large single crystals in aqueous solution. Using bifunctional organic molecules as directing groups, we have isolated six layered heterostructures that form as an interleaving of perovskite slabs with a different inorganic lattice, previously unknown to crystallize with perovskites. In many cases, these intergrown lattices are 2D congeners of canonical inorganic structure types. To our knowledge, these compounds are the first layered perovskite heterostructures formed using organic templates and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Notably, this interleaving of inorganic structures can markedly transform the band structure. Optical data and first principles calculations show that substantive coupling between perovskite and intergrowth layers leads to new electronic transitions distributed across both sublattices. Given the technological promise of halide perovskites4, this intuitive synthetic route sets a foundation for the directed synthesis of richly structured complex semiconductors that self-assemble in water.
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Data availability
Additional crystallographic information, powder X-ray diffraction data, optical data, and animated structural relationships between intergrowths and parent structures are available in the Supplementary Information. Crystallographic information files (CIFs) for the new structures are available from the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Center under reference numbers 1994577–1994579 and 1995031–1995037.
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Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, under contract DE-AC02-76SF00515. M.L.A. is supported by an EERE (Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy) postdoctoral fellowship and B.A.C. is supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate fellowship (DGE-114747) and the McBain award from Stanford Chemistry. K.P.L. thanks the Center for Molecular Analysis and Design at Stanford University for a graduate fellowship and Stanford Chemistry for the William S. Johnson award. SC-XRD studies were performed either at the Advanced Light Source (beamline 11.3.1) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) or at Stanford Nano Shared Facilities, supported by the NSF (award ECCS-1542152). We thank S. Teat for helpful discussion and M. Smith and E. Crace for experimental assistance. DFT calculations were supported by the US DOE, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering (Theory FWP), under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231. We acknowledge computational resources at the Molecular Foundry, supported by the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the US DOE under contract DE-AC02-5CH11231, at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC; Cori), at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (Summit) accessed through the INCITE program (a DOE Office of Science User Facility; grant number DE-AC05-00OR22725), and the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC; Stampede 2) through an XSEDE Award (DMR190070) supported by the NSF grant number ACI-1548562.
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The authors M.L.A., A.S.V. and B.A.C. synthesized and structurally characterized the materials. M.L.A. and K.P.L. performed the optical measurements. H.I.K. defined and guided the project direction. M.R.F. and J.B.N. conducted the electronic structure calculations and theoretical analyses. All authors helped write the manuscript.
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Extended data figures and tables
Extended Data Fig. 1 The crystal structure of (RPO(OH)2)2CuCl4 viewed along the c-axis highlighting the hydrogen bond network in the organic bilayer.
Carbon bonded hydrogens are not shown for clarity. Each phosphonic acid donates two hydrogen bonds and accepts two hydrogen bonds at the unprotonated oxygen atom. Each phosphonic acid hydrogen bonds only to phosphonic acid groups on the opposing face of the organic bilayer to form the checkerboard pattern illustrated. The elements P, C, H, N and O are coloured pink, grey, white, blue and red, respectively.
Extended Data Fig. 2 Schematic illustrating the templating of a hydronium sulfonate between layers of a CuCl42– perovskite sublattice.
a, The archetypal parent 3D perovskite with the relevant slice highlighted. The parent structure RbCuCl3 is unknown though RbCuF3 is known. b, The dimensionally reduced product of a copper chloride perovskite as isolated in the single-crystal structure of (propylammonium)2CuCl4 and the previously reported layered crystal structure of hydronium triflate. Structure directing functional groups are highlighted in blue (ammonium) and red (sulfonate). c, The same interactions from b are shown in the compound (H3O)2(taurine)2CuCl4. The elements Cu, Cl, C, H, N, S, O and F are coloured dark-green, green, grey, white, blue, yellow, red and lime-green, respectively.
Extended Data Fig. 3 Structural comparison between intergrowths and layered reference structures.
a, b, The slab for the magnesium intergrowth in (Mg(H2O)2)(taurine)2CuCl4 (a) and the reference structure KMg(H0.5SO4)2•2(H2O) (b). c, d, The slab for the lithium intergrowth in Li2(taurine)2CuCl4 (c) and the reference structure 𝛼-Li(NH4)SO4 (d). Mg, Li, S, O and H atoms are shown as green, light blue, yellow, red and white spheres, respectively.
Extended Data Fig. 4 Schematic illustrating the templating of a heterostructure with CuInCl8 double perovskite layers and anionic chains of CuCl21–.
a, The parent layered structure (PEA)4CuInCl8 and 1D chain structure (phthalazinium)CuCl2 crystallize with structure directing hydrogen bonds between the organic molecules and the inorganic sublattices highlighted in blue and yellow, respectively. b, The corresponding interactions are highlighted in the templated layered heterostructure (CuCl2)4(HIS)4CuInCl8. Cu, In, Cl, C and N atoms are coloured gold, light-grey, lime-green, grey and blue, respectively. Some H atoms are omitted for clarity.
Extended Data Fig. 5 Schematic illustrating the templating of heterostructures containing layered lead-halide perovskites and layers derived from (001) slices of the PbX2 (X = Cl, Br) structure-type.
a, b, The parent 3D inorganic structures with relevant slices highlighted (a) and their dimensionally reduced progeny (b). Note dimensionally reduced (001) slices of PbX2 have not be isolated outside of the layered heterostructures reported here. Structure directing alkylammonium groups are highlighted in blue and substitution sites for the coordinating ether and sulfide groups in the heterostructures are highlighted in yellow. c, The location of these same templating groups and substitution sites are highlighted in the templated layered heterostructures (PbBr2)2(AMTP)2PbBr4 and (Pb2Cl2)(CYS)2PbCl4. Pb, Cl, Br, C, N, O and S atoms are coloured light-blue, green, orange, grey, blue, red and yellow, respectively. H atoms are omitted for clarity.
Extended Data Fig. 6 Structural comparison between lead-halide intergrowths and slices of the 3D reference structure.
a–c, Face-on comparisons of the (001) slab of PbCl2 (a)—which is isostructural to that of PbBr2—to the intergrowth sublattices in (Pb2Cl2)(CYS)2PbCl4 (b) and (PbBr2)2(AMTP)2PbBr4 (c). The atoms Pb, Cl, S, Br and O atoms are shown as light-blue, green, yellow, orange and red spheres, respectively.
Extended Data Fig. 7 Comparison between the crystal structure and the structural model used in electronic structure calculations.
a, The crystal structure of (Pb2Cl2)(CYS)2PbCl4. b, The structural model used for calculation of absorption spectra and electron–hole interactions with half the unit-cell volume. Disordered atoms in a are resolved and hydrogen atoms in b are removed for clarity. Both structures are viewed along the c axis. Unit-cell borders are shown in red. The atoms Pb, Cl, C, N and S are coloured light-blue, green, grey, blue and yellow, respectively.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
Powder diffraction, crystallographic tables, and supplementary spectra.
Supplementary Data
CIF (Crystallographic information file) for the compounds (3-(ammoniopropyl)-phosphonic acid)2CuCl4, (4-(ammoniomethyl)-benzoic acid)2CuCl4, (phenethylammonium)2CuInCl8, (PbBr2)2(AMTP)2PbBr4, (Pb2Cl2)(CYS)2PbCl4, (Mg(H2O)2)(taurine)2CuCl4, Li2(taurine)2MnCl4, Li2(taurine)2CuCl4, (H3O)2(taurine)2CuCl4, (CuCl2)4(HIS)4CuInCl8.
Supplementary Video 1
Animation illustrating relative atom displacements to relate the intergrowth sublattice in (H3O)2(taurine)2CuCl4 to the non-intergrowth parent structure in Extended Data Table 1.
Supplementary Video 2
Animation illustrating relative atom displacements to relate the intergrowth sublattice in Li2(taurine)2CuCl4 to the non-intergrowth parent structure in Extended Data Table 1.
Supplementary Video 3
Animation illustrating relative atom displacements to relate the intergrowth sublattice in Li2(taurine)2MnCl4 to the non-intergrowth parent structure in Extended Data Table 1.
Supplementary Video 4
Animation illustrating relative atom displacements to relate the intergrowth sublattice in (Mg(H2O)2)(taurine)2CuCl4 to the non-intergrowth parent structure in Extended Data Table 1.
Supplementary Video 5
Animation illustrating relative atom displacements to relate the intergrowth sublattice in (CuCl2)4(HIS)4CuInCl8 to the non-intergrowth parent structure in Extended Data Table 1.
Supplementary Video 6
Animation illustrating relative atom displacements to relate the intergrowth sublattice in (Pb2Cl2)(CYS)2PbCl4 to the non-intergrowth parent structure in Extended Data Table 1. This is the same animation as in Supplementary Video 7 viewed along [001].
Supplementary Video 7
Animation illustrating relative atom displacements to relate the intergrowth sublattice in (Pb2Cl2)(CYS)2PbCl4 to the non-intergrowth parent structure in Extended Data Table 1. This is the same animation as in Supplementary Video 6 viewed along [100].
Supplementary Video 8
Animation illustrating relative atom displacements to relate the intergrowth sublattice in (PbBr2)2(AMTP)2PbBr4 to the non-intergrowth parent structure in Extended Data Table 1. This is the same animation as in Supplementary Video 9 viewed along [001].
Supplementary Video 9
Animation illustrating relative atom displacements to relate the intergrowth sublattice in (PbBr2)2(AMTP)2PbBr4 to the non-intergrowth parent structure in Extended Data Table 1. This is the same animation as in Supplementary Video 8 viewed along [100].
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Aubrey, M.L., Saldivar Valdes, A., Filip, M.R. et al. Directed assembly of layered perovskite heterostructures as single crystals. Nature 597, 355–359 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03810-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03810-x
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