Michael Brennan
2018 Best Electron Microscopy Publication Imaging Award
The 2018 Best Electron Microscopy Imaging Publication was awarded to Michael Brennan, a PhD candidate with Professor Masaru K. Kuno in the Department of Chemistry. Brennan and coworkers published a paper entitled “Crystal Strucutre of Individual CsPbBr3 Perovskite Nanocubes”.
The exact crystal structure assumed by CsPbBr3 nanocubes (NCs) remains ambiguous, whether cubic or orthorhombic. Here the atomic structure of individual CsPbBr3 NCs is considered via high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) defocus-series analyses. The technique entails acquiring lattice-resolved HRTEM images of individual NCs over progressive defocus values. CsPbBr3 NC atomic structure was evaluated by comparing acquired experimental data to simulated lattice-resolved images and corresponding Fourier transform patterns of both orthorhombic (Pnma) and cubic (Pm3̅ m) CsPbBr3 polymorphs. The analyses indicate that both polymorphs exist simultaneously for NCs with 10 nm edge lengths. When edge lengths are <5 nm, however, only cubic symmetry is observed signifying a potential size dependence to the crystal symmetry of CsPbBr3 NCs. Such structural measurements provide critical insight into elucidating the structure/(optical and electrical) function relationship of CsPbBr3 NCs.The study was published in Inorg. Chem. 2018, 58, 2, 1555-1560.