Vitamins as Active Agents for Highly Emissive and Stable Nanostructured Halide Perovskite Inks and 3D Composites Fabricated by Additive Manufacturing

The use of non-toxic and low-cost vitamins like alpha-tocopherol (alpha-TCP, vitamin E) to improve the photophysical properties and stability of perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs), through post-synthetic ligand surface passivation, is demonstrated for the first time. Especially interesting is its effect on CsPbI3 the most unstable inorganic PNC. Adding alpha-TCP produces that the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of freshly prepared and aged PNCs achieves values of approximate to 98% and 100%, respectively. After storing 2 months under ambient air and 60% relative humidity, PLQY is maintained at 85% and 67%, respectively. alpha-TCP restores the PL features of aged CsPbI3 PNCs, and mediates the radiative recombination channels by reducing surface defects. In addition, the combination of alpha-TCP and PNCs facilitates the chemical formulation to prepare PNCs-acrylic polymer composites processable by additive manufacturing. This enables the development of complex shaped parts with improved luminescent features and long-term stability for 4 months, which is not possible for non-modified PNCs. A PLQY approximate to 92% is reached in the 3D printed polymer/PNC composite, the highest value obtained for a red-emitting composite solid until now as far as it is known. The passivation shell provided by alpha-TCP makes that PNCs inks do not suffer any degradation process avoiding the contact with the environment and preserve their properties after reacting with polar monomers during composite polymerization.