Enhancing the photo-luminescence stability of CH3NH3PbI3 film with ionic liquids

The methylammonium lead triiodide (CH₃NH₃PbI₃)-based perovskite shows a great alluring prospect in areas of solar cells, lasers, photodetectors, and light emitting diodes owing to their excellent optical and electrical advantages. However, it is very sensitive to the surrounding oxygen and moisture, which limits its development seriously. It is urgent to spare no effort to enhance its optical and electrical stability for further application. In this paper, we synthesize the MAPbI₃ perovskite film on the glass substrate with/without the ionic liquid (IL) of 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (BMIMBF₄) by a simple two-step sequential solution method. The additive of BMIMBF₄ can improve the quality of crystal structure. Moreover, the photo-luminescence (PL) intensity of MAPbI₃ film with BMIMBF₄ is much stronger than the pure MAPbI₃ film after a week in the air, which is almost ten-fold of the pure one. Meanwhile, under the illumination of 405-nm continuous wave (CW) laser, the fluorescent duration of the MAPbI₃ film with BMIMBF₄ is approximately 2.75 min, while the pure MAPbI₃ film is only about 6 s. In fact, ionic liquid of BMIMBF₄ in the perovskite film plays a role of passivation, which prevents the dissolution of MAPbI₃ into CH₃NH₃ and PbI₂ and thus enhances the stability of environment. In addition, the ionic liquid of BMIMBF₄ possesses high ionic conductivity, which accelerates the electron transport, so it is beneficial for the perovskite film in the areas of solar cells, photodetectors, and lasers. This interesting experiment provides a promising way to develop the perovskite's further application.