Scintillation Properties of CsPbBr3 Nanocrystals Prepared by Ligand-Assisted Reprecipitation and Dual Effect of Polyacrylate Encapsulation toward Scalable Ultrafast Radiation Detectors

TL;DR

This study investigates the scintillation properties and stability of CsPbBr3 nanocrystals prepared via ligand-assisted reprecipitation, revealing how polyacrylate encapsulation affects their performance and defect passivation for scalable radiation detectors.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of LARP-synthesized CsPbBr3 nanocrystals' scintillation properties and elucidates the dual effects of polyacrylate encapsulation on defect passivation and luminescence.

Findings

LARP-synthesized CsPbBr3 NCs are comparable to hot-injection particles.

Polyacrylate encapsulation partially degrades luminescence but passivates defects.

Surface defect density influences the balance of effects in polymer embedding.

Abstract

Lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (LHP-NCs) embedded in polymeric hosts are gaining attention as scalable and low-cost scintillation detectors for technologically relevant applications. Despite rapid progress, little is currently known about the scintillation properties and stability of LHP-NCs prepared by the ligand assisted reprecipitation (LARP) method, which allows mass scalability at room temperature unmatched by any other type of nanostructure, and the implications of incorporating LHP-NCs into polyacrylate hosts are still largely debated. Here, we show that LARP-synthesized CsPbBr3 NCs are comparable to particles from hot-injection routes and unravel the dual effect of polyacrylate incorporation, where the partial degradation of LHP-NCs luminescence is counterbalanced by the passivation of electron-poor defects by the host acrylic groups. Experiments on NCs with tailored surface defects show that the balance between such antithetical effects of polymer embedding is determined by the surface defect density of the NCs and provide guidelines for further material optimization.