Indium-antimony-halide single crystals for high-efficiency white-light emission and anti-counterfeiting

Indium-antimony bimetallic halide single crystal exhibits single-source white-light emission and anti-counterfeiting potential.
Although single-source white emissive perovskite has emerged as a class of encouraging light-emitting material, the synthesis of lead-free halide perovskite materials with high luminous efficiency is still challenging. Here, we report a series of zero-dimensional indium-antimony (In/Sb) alloyed halide single crystals, BAPPIn2–2xSb2xCl10 (BAPP = C10H28N4, x = 0 to 1), with tunable emission. In BAPPIn1.996Sb0.004Cl10, bright yellow emission with near 100% photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) is yielded when it was excited at 320 nm, which turns into bright white-light emission with a PLQY of 44.0% when excited at 365 nm. Combined spectroscopy and theoretical studies reveal that the BAPP4+-associated blue emission and inorganic polyhedron–afforded orange emission function as a perfect pair of complementary colors affording white light in BAPPIn1.996Sb0.004Cl10. Moreover, the interesting afterglow behavior, together with excitation-dependent emission property, makes BAPPIn2–2xSb2xCl10 as high-performance anti-counterfeiting/information storage materials.