Highly ordered II-VI based organic-inorganic hybrids with over 15-year shelf life.

Organic-inorganic hybrids may offer unique material properties not available from their components. However, they are typically less stable and disordered. Hybrid perovskites are the best examples. Long-term stability study of the hybrid materials, over the anticipated lifespan of a real device, is practically nonexistent. A family of highly ordered II-VI based hybrid semiconductors, first reported around two decades ago, have been shown to possess a number of unusual novel properties and potential applications. Here we show that, using a prototype structure ZnTe(en)0.5, some samples over 15-year old remain as good as freshly made ones in structure and property. This study reveals how the stability of a hybrid material is affected by its intrinsic attribute - formation energy, and extrinsic factors, such as surface and defects.