Hydrophobic Metal Halide Perovskites for Visible-Light Photoredox C-C Bond Cleavage and Dehydrogenation Catalysis.

Two-dimensional lead and tin halide perovskites were prepared by intercalating the long alkyl group 1-hexadecylammonium (HDA) between the inorganic layers. We observed visible-light absorption, narrow-band photoluminescence, and nanosecond photoexcited lifetimes in these perovskites. Owing to their hydrophobicity and stability even in humid air, we applied these perovskites in the decarboxylation and dehydrogenation of indoline-2-carboxylic acids. (HDA)2 PbI4 or (HDA)2 SnI4 were investigated as photoredox catalysts for these reactions, and quantitative conversion and high yields were observed with the former.

Understanding the Origins of Nucleophilic Hydride Reactivity of a Sodium Hydride-Iodide Composite.

Sodium hydride (NaH) has been commonly used as a Brønsted base in chemical syntheses, while it has rarely been employed to add hydride (H(-) ) to unsaturated electrophiles. We previously developed a procedure to activate NaH through the addition of a soluble iodide source and found that the new NaH-NaI composite can effect even stereoselective nucleophilic hydride reductions of nitriles, imines, and carbonyl compounds. In this work, we report that mixing NaH with NaI or LiI in tetrahydrofuran (THF) as a solvent provides a new inorganic composite, which consists of NaI interspersed with activated NaH, as revealed by powder X-ray diffraction, and both solid-state NMR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. DFT calculations imply that this remarkably simple inorganic composite, which is comprised of NaH and NaI, gains nucleophilic hydridic character similar to covalent hydrides, resulting in unprecedented and unique hydride donor chemical reactivity.

Completely Solvent-free Protocols to Access Phase-Pure, Metastable Metal Halide Perovskites and Functional Photodetectors from the Precursor Salts.

Mechanochemistry is a green, solid-state, re-emerging synthetic technique that can rapidly form complex molecules and materials without exogenous heat or solvent(s). Herein, we report the application of solvent-free mechanochemical ball milling for the synthesis of metal halide perovskites, to overcome problems with solution-based syntheses. We prepared phase-pure, air-sensitive CsSnX3 (X = I, Br, Cl) and its mixed halide perovskites by mechanochemistry for the first time by reactions between cesium and tin(II) halides. Notably, we report the sole examples where metastable, high-temperature phases like cubic CsSnCl3, cubic CsPbI3, and trigonal FAPbI3 were accessible at ambient temperatures and pressures without post-synthetic processing. The perovskites can be prepared up to "kilogram scales." Lead-free, all-inorganic photodetector devices were fabricated using the mechanosynthesized CsSnBr1.5Cl1.5 under solvent-free conditions and showed 10-fold differences between on-off currents. We highlight an essentially solvent-free, general approach to synthesize metastable compounds and fabricate photodetectors from commercially available precursors.