Versatile approaches to nanoparticle synthesis offer unprecedented opportunities for the development of optoelectronics, photonics, as well as bio sciences. With the current advancement of hybrid organic-inorganic metal halide perovskites, the next step is to expand their field of applications via utilization of functional and modifiable ligand chemistry. Here, we present a ligand assisted reprecipitation approach for highly luminescent perovskite nanoparticle synthesis using for the first time L-lysine and L-arginine for surface passivation. These nanoparticles exhibit emission within a narrow bandwidth of the visible spectrum and photoluminescence quantum yield close to 100%. Additionally, preferential ligand orientation is achieved via amino acids α-amino group blocking which results in blueshifted emission as well as smaller and more uniform particle size. These experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of naturally occurring proteinogenic amino acids as surface ligands and offer possibilities for versatile modification of perovskite nanoparticle properties via well-studied amino acid chemistry.

The efficiency of organo-lead halide perovskite-based optoelectronic devices is dramatically lower for amorphous materials compared to highly crystalline ones. Therefore, it is challenging to optimize and scale up the production of large-sized single crystals of perovskite materials. Here, we describe a novel and original approach to preparing lead halide perovskite single crystals by applying microwave radiation during the crystallization. The microwave radiation primarily causes precise heating control in the whole volume and avoids temperature fluctuations. Moreover, this facile microwave-assisted method of preparation is highly reproducible and fully automated, it and can be applied for various different perovskite structures. In addition, this cost-effective method is expected to be easily scalable because of its versatility and low energy consumption. The crystallization process has low heat losses; therefore, only a low microwave reactor power of 8–15 W during the temperature changes and of less than 1 W during the temperature holding is needed.

Combining the unique properties of peptides as versatile tools for nano- and biotechnology with lead halide perovskite nanoparticles can bring exceptional opportunities for the development of optoelectronics, photonics, and bioelectronics. As a first step towards this challenge sub 10 nm methylammonium lead bromide perovskite colloidal nanoparticles have been synthetizes using commercial cyclic peptide Cyclo(RGDFK), containing 5 amino acids, as a surface stabilizer. Perovskite nanoparticles passivated with Cyclo(RGDFK) possess charge transfer from the perovskite core to the peptide shell, resulting in lower photoluminescence quantum yields, which however opens a path for the application where charge transfer is favorable.