Melting of hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites

Several organic–inorganic hybrid materials from the metal–organic framework (MOF) family have been shown to form stable liquids at high temperatures. Quenching then results in the formation of melt-quenched MOF glasses that retain the three-dimensional coordination bonding of the crystalline phase. These hybrid glasses have intriguing properties and could find practical applications, yet the melt-quench phenomenon has so far remained limited to a few MOF structures. Here we turn to hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites—which occupy a prominent position within materials chemistry owing to their functional properties such as ion transport, photoconductivity, ferroelectricity and multiferroicity—and show that a series of dicyanamide-based hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites undergo melting. Our combined experimental–computational approach demonstrates that, on quenching, they form glasses that largely retain their solid-state inorganic–organic connectivity. The resulting materials show very low thermal conductivities (~0.2 W m−1 K−1), moderate electrical conductivities (10−3–10−5 S m−1) and polymer-like thermomechanical properties. A series of dicyanamide-based hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite structures has been shown to melt at temperatures below 300 °C. On melt-quenching, they form glasses that possess coordination bonding and show very low thermal conductivities and moderate electrical conductivities as well as polymer-like thermomechanical properties.