Cation engineering provides a route to control the structure and properties of hybrid halide perovskites, which has resulted in the highest performance solar cells based on mixtures of Cs, methylammonium, and formamidinium. Here, we present a multi-technique experimental and theoretical study of structural phase transitions, structural phases and dipolar dynamics in the mixed methylammonium/dimethylammonium MA1-xDMAxPbBr3 hybrid perovskites (0 ≤ x ≤ 1). Our results demonstrate a significant suppression of the structural phase transitions, enhanced disorder and stabilization of the cubic phase even for a small amount of dimethylammonium cations. As the dimethylammonium concentration approaches the solubility limit in MAPbBr3, we observe the disappearance of the structural phase transitions and indications of a glassy dipolar phase. We also reveal a significant tunability of the dielectric permittivity upon mixing of the molecular cations that arises from frustrated electric dipoles.
Mixing of molecular cations enhances the optoelectronic properties and stability of hybrid lead halide perovskites. Here, we use a multitechnique approach to determine the phase diagram and molecular cation dynamics of mixed methylammonium-formamidinium MA1–x FA x PbBr3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) hybrid perovskites. The calorimetric, ultrasonic, and X-ray diffraction experiments show a substantial suppression of the structural phase transitions and stabilization of the cubic phase upon mixing. We use the broad-band dielectric and Raman spectroscopies to study the MA and FA cation dynamics in these compounds. The broad-band dielectric spectroscopy indicates the absence of the MA cation ordering and a gradual increase of the rotation barrier upon mixing. The room-temperature dielectric permittivity substantially decreases as the fraction of the FA cations is increased. No significant changes of the permittivity are detected at temperatures, where the dielectric relaxations are absent. We also observe weak signatures of a dipolar glass phase for the intermediate mixing levels. The Raman spectroscopy supports the dielectric results and reveals additional subtle information about the FA cation dynamics.
The heat capacity and thermal conductivity of the monoclinic and the fully ordered orthorhombic phases of 2-adamantanone (C10H14O) have been measured for temperatures between 2 and 150 K. The heat capacities for both phases are shown to be strikingly close regardless of the site disorder present in the monoclinic crystal which arises from the occupancy of three nonequivalent sites for the oxygen atom. The heat capacity curves are also well accounted for by an evaluation carried out within the harmonic approximation in terms of the g(ω) vibrational frequency distributions measured by means of inelastic neutron scattering. Such spectral functions show however a significant excess of low frequency modes for the crystal showing statistical disorder. In contrast, large differences are found for the thermal conductivity which contrary to what could be expected, shows the substitutionally disordered crystal to exhibit better heat transport properties than the fully ordered orthorhombic phase. Such an anomalous behavior is understood from examination of the crystalline structure of the orthorhombic phase which leads to very strong scattering of heat-carrying phonons due to grain boundary effects able to yield a largely reduced value of the conductivity as well as to a plateau-like feature at intermediate temperatures which contrasts with a bell-shaped maximum shown by data pertaining the disordered crystal. The relevance of the present findings within the context of glassy dynamics of the orientational glass state is finally discussed.
The polymorphism of 2-adamantanone (C10H14O) has been investigated by means of X-ray diffraction and high-pressure thermal analysis. The intricate behavior of the low-temperature crystalline phases has been disentangled. The stable phase has been found to be orthorhombic (Cmc2 1, Z = 4), fully ordered, with lattice parameters a = 6.8884(18) Å, b = 10.830(3) Å, c = 10.658(3) Å, and V/Z = 198.8(1) Å3. The metastable phase was determined to be monoclinic (P21/c, Z = 4) with lattice parameters a = 6.5920(17) Å, b = 11.118(3) Å, c = 12.589(3) Å, ß= 118.869(11) o, and V/Z = 202.0(1) Å3. The pressure-temperature phase diagram irrefutably shows the stability relation between both phases and, accordingly, the long-time unknown polymorphic behavior is now revealed and gives coherent physical explanation of the literature published so far.Postprint (published version
The low-temperature thermal and transport properties of an unusual kind of crystal exhibiting minimal molecular positional and tilting disorder have been measured. The material, namely, low-dimensional, highly anisotropic pentachloronitrobenzene has a layered structure of rhombohedral parallel planes in which the molecules execute large-amplitude in-plane as well as concurrent out-of-plane librational motions. Our study reveals that low-temperature glassy anomalies can be found in a system with minimal disorder due to the freezing of (mostly in-plane) reorientational jumps of molecules between equivalent crystallographic positions with partial site occupation. Our findings will pave the way to a deeper understanding of the origin of the above-mentioned universal glassy properties at low temperature.
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