Short-chain ligand achieves ultra-stable CsPbX3 perovskite quantum dots for white light-emitting diodes

All-inorganic perovskite quantum dots (PeQDs) have aroused great research interest in white light-emitting diodes (WLED) due to their excellent optoelectronic properties, but the poor stability, caused by dynamically binding long-chain capping ligands, hinders their future practical applications. To address this issue, here, we exploit short-chain butyric acid (BA) to replace long-chain oleic acid (OA) as capping ligand of CsPbX3 PeQDs by a hot-injection method. The addition of BA not only makes the morphology of CsPbBr3 PeQDs uniform and improves the crystallinity but also effectively suppresses nonradiative recombination, achieving a near unit photoluminescence quantum yield of 96%. The BA capped CsPbBr3 PeQDs exhibit high stability up to 180 d stored in ambient environment and also significantly improved resistance against polar solvent, ultra-violet lamp irradiation, and heat, which is rationalized by the strong binding capacity and shortened distance of BA to the PeQDs through ab initio calculations. Furthermore, by combining green-emission CsPbBr3 and red-emission CsPbBr0.8I2.2 PeQDs with blue GaN chip, we achieved WLEDs with excellent luminous properties, showing their great potential in practical application of wide-color-gamut display and lighting.