Reversible Methanolation of Metal Halide Perovskites

The low formation energies inherent in metal halide perovskites enable the structure to be easily broken and remade with little energy input. In this work, we leverage low formation energy to demonstrate 0D/3D structural transformations induced by reversible intercalation of methanol to yield dramatic control of visible light absorption. We identify a methanolated structure that features sheets of 0D isolated PbI64– octahedra separated by MAI and methanol. Methanol and water reversibly displace each other in the 0D complex by controlling the chemical potential of the system via Le Chatelier’s principle. The weaker H-bonding of methanol compared to water effectively reduces the complex dissociation temperature from 70 to 50 °C, rendering the methanol complex more desirable for an array of next-generation applications spanning low-power-consumption memory to switchable photovoltaics.