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PRINCIPAL PUBLICATION AND AUTHORS

Bioinspired Molecular Bridging in a Hybrid Perovskite Leads to Enhanced Stability and Tunable Properties, A. Lang (a), I. Polishchuk (a), E. Seknazi (a), J. Feldmann (b), A. Katsman (a), B. Pokroy (a), Adv. Funct. Mater. 30, 2005136 (2020); https:/doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202005136 (a) Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Israel) (b) Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich (Germany)

REFERENCES

[1] S. Brittman et al., MRS Commun. 5, 7-26 (2015). [2] E. Seknazi & B. Pokroy, Adv. Mater. 30, 1707263 (2018). [3] M.A.H. Muhammed et al., J. Phys. Chem. C 122, 6348- 6356 (2018). [4] I. Polishchuk et al., Adv. Funct. Mater. 30, 1910405 (2020).

Fig. 113: Mechanism of Lys incorporation into MAPbBr3. a) The (100) plane of pure MAPbBr3, b) Suggested Lys location upon incorporation during fast growth, c) Suggested Lys location upon incorporation during slow growth. d) Increase in the optical band gap of MAPbBr3 as a function of the amount of incorporated Lys. e) Changes in the dissolution rate of MAPbBr3 in water versus the amount of incorporated Lys, measured using time-dependent impedance. f) Relative amount of PbBr2 (a product of the reaction of MAPbBr3 with water) after a week of exposure to controlled humidity conditions.

Characterising the crystallisation pathways of calcium sulfate using in-situ tomography

A novel strategy for determining crystallisation pathways studies crystallisation in situ within nanoporous media using X-ray tomography. Crystallisation is slow within these environments, making it possible to follow the development of a population of crystals and to show that calcium sulfate can form via multiple pathways that can operate simultaneously.

Crystallisation underpins a vast array of processes as diverse as the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and semiconductor nanoparticles, ice formation in the environment, the deposition of scale and the generation of biominerals such as seashells. Determining how crystallisation occurs will ultimately enable us to control these processes and generate crystals with desired shapes, sizes and structures. However, while it is known that crystallisation can take place via many mechanisms, it remains highly challenging to characterise processes in which multiple pathways operate simultaneously.

that the amount of PbBr2, which forms as a result of the decomposition reaction of MAPbBr3 with water, decreased as a function of the amount of incorporated Lys (Figure 113f). Overall, this work demonstrates that

a widespread biological strategy of incorporation of organic molecules enables the tuning of key properties in hybrid perovskites, which may lead, in the future, to the manufacture of more stable devices.