The chemistry of designing epitaxial perovskite-chalcogenide
nanocrystal
heterostructures still could not be established yet in spite of significant
successes in understanding both perovskite and chalcogenide nanostructures
formation. Interfacing the ionic–covalent bonding at the junction
of both remains the major obstacle for establishing the seamless formation
of such nanostructures. Keeping the compatibility of Bi(III) ions
with Pb(II) in different lead halide perovskite nanocrystals, herein,
multiple possibilities of interface junctions of ionic CsPbBr3 and covalent PbBi2S4 sulfide nanocrystals
are reported. Creating the common Pb(II) sublattice structures in
this system indeed helped in designing such a wide possibility of
nanocrystal heterostructures, and this supported the connection of
CsPbBr3 polyhedral nanocrystals with PbBi2S4 nanorods in different orientations. While epitaxial heterostructure
formations are typically observed with the interface of specific facets
of two nanoscale materials, here, for perovskites, this provides multiple
options of different facets combination. This concept remained important
for fundamental understanding in creating junctions of ionic–covalent
crystals and also helped in establishing the method for designing
halide perovskite-chalcogenide nanocrystal heterostructures. Such
interface junctions, where defects are mostly generated due to halide
deficiency, quench the optical emission, but, in contrary, enhance
the catalytic activities.