In situ nanocrystal confinement for efficient blue perovskite LEDs

Abstract Metal halide perovskites have emerged as promising semiconductors for light-emitting diodes (LEDs) owing to their excellent luminescence properties1. However, their performance remains limited, primarily owing to the inherent contradiction between ‘high crystallinity’ and ‘small size’ in the in situ synthesis of perovskite nanocrystals on substrates. Here we report efficient blue perovskite LEDs (PeLEDs) achieved via in situ polymerization-driven nanocrystal confinement to synthesize perovskite films composed of high-quality nanocrystals. The in situ-formed polymer network imposes nanoscale spatial constraints during perovskite nanocrystal growth, enabling nanocrystals with small sizes and a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 83%. Furthermore, polymerizable monomers with sufficient coordination sites allow a prolonged lattice rearrangement of perovskite clusters, promoting the crystallinity of the nanocrystals. The synthesized perovskite nanocrystals are utilized in the fabrication of PeLEDs, resulting in an external quantum efficiency of 21.8% at 491 nm, which is among the highest performances in blue PeLEDs. This work simultaneously controls the thermal dynamics of perovskite crystallization and organic ligand reactions, which helps to advance understanding of the effect of ligand engineering on nanocrystal synthesis, benefiting the development of efficient PeLEDs and other optoelectronic technologies. 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We thank the staff at beamlines BL14B1 at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) for their help with GIWAXS characterizations. We thank the Materials Processing and Analysis Center, Peking University, for assistance with X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence and scanning electron microscopy characterization. Author information Authors and Affiliations Contributions S.L., H.Z., L.-D.S. and C.-H.Y conceived of and designed the study. S.L. fabricated the perovskite nanocrystals and the efficient PeLEDs. M.P. performed the interaction energy calculations, molecular dynamics simulations and nanocrystal phase stability calculations under the supervision of S.T. Z.Z. calculated the Gibbs free energies and electronic properties under supervision of Q.C. X.H. conducted transmission electron microscopy measurements under the supervision of L.W. H.X. and Z.H. contributed to the three-dimensional finite-difference-time-domain simulations and thermal conductance measurements. Z.G. and L.L. contributed to the in situ absorption and photoluminescence measurements. R.F. and J.G. contributed to the Raman measurement. D.-Y.Z. conducted the liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy measurements under the supervision of H.W. D.P. contributed to the confocal fluorescence microscopy measurement. W.Y. contributed to the atomic force microscopy measurement. S.L., Y.H., L.M., H.D., H.Z. and L.-D.S. wrote and revised the paper. All authors were involved in discussions of data analysis and commented on the paper. Corresponding authors Ethics declarations Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests. Peer review Peer review information Nature thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Additional information Extended data figures and tables Extended Data Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of ligands design and crystallization of perovskite nanocrystals. Extended Data Fig. 2 The phase of the pristine and OEGA nanocrystals. a-b, XRD patterns (a), and magnified and fitting of the (002) plane (b) for the Cs0.7EA0.3PbBr3 nanocrystals with different OEGA concentrations. c-f, HRTEM images of OEGA perovskite nanocrystals with tilted angles (c), and corresponding nanocrystals with FFT diffractograms and atomic structure model (d-f). g-h, Energies of CsPbBr3 nanocrystals with CsBr-termination (g) and PbBr2-termination (h). The total energies of the cubic (α), tetragonal (β), and orthorhombic (γ) phases are shown in red, blue, and green, respectively. i-j, Energies of Cs0.75EA0.25PbBr3 nanocrystals with CsBr-termination (i) and PbBr2-termination (j). By incorporating EA+, the bulk energy \({\Delta }_{{\rm{bulk}}}\) decreases, shifting the energy of α-Cs0.75EA0.25PbBr3 down with respect to the γ-phase, as indicated by the pink and lightgreen lines. Extended Data Fig. 3 Time-lapse LP-TEM images of perovskite precursors. Precursor solutions without additives (a), with OEGA and AIBN (b), with OEGA and AIBN after long-time irradiation (c), with OEGA (d), with N-MOA (e), and with PAA (f). Time zero indicates the start of imaging. Images are acquired at 200 kV with an electron dose rate of 5 e−/(Å2·s), except for (c), where images from t0 to t1 are collected at 12 e−/(Å2·s), and images at t2 are collected at 5 e−/(Å2·s). The field of view is adjusted between t0 and t1 to center the nanocrystals. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) confirms homogeneous element distribution of (b) (cesium: 37.4%, lead: 23.6%, bromine: 39.0%), ruling out premature precipitation. FFT analysis confirms these aggregates lacked crystalline order, consistent with amorphous intermediates formed via solvent-ligand-precursor interactions. Controlled experiments of OEGA precursors without initiators (d) revealed beam-generated radicals induced partial polymerization, yielding two particle types: <100 nm nanocrystals confined by polymer networks and >300 nm nanocrystals growing slowly via unreacted OEGA coordination. Extended Data Fig. 4 Characterization of the isolated submicrometric particles distributed on the surface of OEGA perovskite films. a-b, HAADF-STEM and EDS mapping images of the isolated submicrometric particles (a) and the perovskite film (b) with OEGA. c, EDS spectrum acquired from Extended Data Fig. 4a. The atomic percentages of Cs, Pb, and Br are 7.0%, 4.9%, and 21.9%, respectively. d, EDS line scan analysis along the yellow line in Extended Data Fig. 4b. Supplementary information Rights and permissions Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. About this article Cite this article Liu, S., Pols, M., Zhang, Z. et al. In situ nanocrystal confinement for efficient blue perovskite LEDs. Nature 654, 375–382 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10596-3 Received: Accepted: Published: Version of record: Issue date: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10596-3