Solution Processed Zero-Dimensional Organic Metal Halide Hybrids for X-Ray Scintillators and Detectors

X-ray scintillators and detectors play an essential role in modern medical diagnostics, security screening, and industrial inspection. Traditional inorganic materials, though widely used, face limitations in performance, versatility, and cost, prompting the search for eco-friendly alternatives. In this talk, I will present our recent work on developing sustainable X-ray scintillation and detection materials based on zero-dimensional (0D) organic metal halide hybrids (OMHHs). These hybrid materials consist of co-crystallized organic and metal halide ions, forming ionically bonded systems with remarkable structural and property tunability. Notably, by choosing appropriate organic cations and metal halides, 0D OMHHs can be facilely solution-processed to form amorphous films with excellent optical and electronic properties. X-ray scintillators based on solution-processed 0D OMHHs offer several key advantages over conventional inorganic materials, including (i) low-cost, scalable fabrication through room-temperature wet chemistry, (ii) tunable visible emissions with near-unity photoluminescence quantum efficiency, and (iii) higher light yields and shorter decay lifetimes. For direct X-ray detection, the isolation of metal halides by organic cations in 0D OMHHs ensures excellent stability and mitigates current drift by reducing ionic migration. By using semiconducting 0D OMHHs with molecular sensitization, we have developed direct X-ray detectors that offer high sensitivity, low detection limits, and exceptional stability and processability, making them promising candidates for real-world applications.