The influence of deuteration on the crystal structure of hybrid halide perovskites: a temperature-dependent neutron diffraction study of FAPbBr3

Acta Crystallogr B Struct Sci Cryst Eng Mater. 2020 Apr 1;76(Pt 2):267-274. doi: 10.1107/S2052520620002620. Epub 2020 Mar 20.

Abstract

This paper discusses the full structural solution of the hybrid perovskite formamidinium lead tribromide (FAPbBr3) and its temperature-dependent phase transitions in the range from 3 K to 300 K using neutron powder diffraction and synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Special emphasis is put on the influence of deuteration on formamidinium, its position in the unit cell and disordering in comparison to fully hydrogenated FAPbBr3. The temperature-dependent measurements show that deuteration critically influences the crystal structures, i.e. results in partially-ordered temperature-dependent structural modifications in which two symmetry-independent molecule positions with additional dislocation of the molecular centre atom and molecular angle inclinations are present.

Keywords: FAPbBr3; crystal structure; deuteration; hybrid perovskite; neutron powder diffraction.