Surface passivation strategies for CsPbBr₃ quantum dots aiming at nonradiative suppression and enhancement of electroluminescent light-emitting diodes

With many fascinating characteristics, such as color-tunability, narrow-band emission, and low-cost solution processability, all-inorganic lead halide perovskite quantum dots (QDs) have attracted keen attention for electroluminescent light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) and display applications. However, the performance of perovskite QLED devices is intrinsically limited by the inefficient electrical carrier transport capacity. Herein, one facile but effective method is proposed to enhance the perovskite QLED performance by incorporating a short carbon chain ligand of 2-phenethylammonium bromide (PEABr) to passivate the CsPbBr₃ QD surface. With the PEABr ligand, the Br^- vacancies are passivated, which could eliminate nonradiative recombination of perovskite QDs; thus their optical properties are enhanced. Meanwhile, PEABr can interact with perovskite QDs to adjust the perovskite film morphology, resulting in low current leakage and efficient electron injection. After the PEABr treatment, the CsPbBr₃ QD film exhibits strong green emission located at 516 nm, with an average photoluminescence lifetime of 45.71 ns and a photoluminescence quantum yield of up to 78.64%. In addition, the surface roughness of the CsPbBr₃ QD film is reduced from 3.61 nm to 1.38 nm, which is essential to prepare a QD film with high surface coverage. As a result, the QLED device with PEABr treated CsPbBr₃ QDs exhibits a maximum current efficiency of 32.69 cd A^-1 corresponding to an external quantum efficiency of 9.67%, 3.88-fold higher than that of the control device (pure QDs as an emission layer). This research provides an effective strategy for the improvement of the perovskite QLED performance and may be helpful for extending their actual applications.