Down and up conversion luminescence of the lead-free organic metal halide material: (C9H8NO)2SnCl6·2H2O

The present work deals with the optical properties of hybrid organic metal halide material namely (C9H8NO)2SnCl6·2H2O. Its structure is built up from isolated [SnCl6]2− octahedral dianions surrounded by Hydroxyl quinolinium organic cations (C9H8NO)+, abbreviated as [HQ]+. Unlike the usual hybrid materials, where metal halide ions are luminescent semiconductors while the organic ones are optically inactive, [HQ]2SnCl6·2H2O contains two optically active entities: [HQ]+ organic cations and [SnCl6]2− dianions. The optical properties of the synthesized crystals were studied by optical absorption spectroscopy, photoluminescence measurements and DFT calculations of electronic density of states. These studies have shown that both organic and inorganic entities have very close HOMO–LUMO gaps and very similar band alignments favoring the resonant energy transfer process. In addition, measurements of luminescence under variable excitations reveal an intense green luminescence around 497 nm under UV excitation (down conversion) and infrared excitation (up conversion luminescence). The down conversion luminescence is assigned to the π–π* transition within the [HQ] + organic cations involving charge transfer between the organic and inorganic entities, whereas the up-conversion luminescence is based on the triplet–triplet annihilation mechanism (TTA).