Water-assisted preparation of ethanol-dispersed CsPbBr3 perovskite nanocrystals and emissive gel

• Ethanol-dispersed CsPbX 3 PNCs are prepared by using glycyrrhizic acid as the sole capping ligand. • The role of water and glycyrrhizic acid on the preparation and stability of PNCs are illustrated in detail. • The PNCs emissive ethanol gel with improved stability is prepared by adding zwitterionic CHAPS. Cesium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) are highly attractive for optoelectronic applications due to their tunable bandgap, large absorption cross section and efficient photoluminescence. However, the dynamic ligand binding and ionic lattice make PNCs extremely sensitive to polar solvents, which greatly hinders the applications of PNCs. In this work, we first synthesize ethanol-dispersed PNCs with the assistance of water using glycyrrhizic acid (GA) as the sole capping ligand. The prepared PNCs with a mean size of 14.5 nm exhibit a narrow and symmetric emission band (full width at half maximum: 18 nm) and photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield (QY) of ~38.1%. Different with the common sense, the addition of water promotes the formation of GA-passivated PNCs due to the accelerated reaction rate of precursors and the H + dissociation of GA at presence of Lewis base water. Furthermore, the ethanol-dispersed PNCs can be further transformed into emissive ethanol gels with improved stability. Our findings provide a novel strategy to achieve stable colloidal PNCs in polar solvents.