Structural modulation of borosilicate glass via introducing ZnO for in-situ growth of stable and efficient CsPbBr3 quantum dots

By adjusting the ZnO content to modulate the glass network structure, self-crystallization of the CsPbBr 3 QDs in borosilicate glass was induced. • The prepared CsPbBr 3 QDs@glass exhibits an IQE and EQE of 39.8% and 29.6% upon 455 nm excitation, respectively. • The prepared CsPbBr 3 QDs@glass demonstrates favorable thermostability and water‑resistant performance. CsPbBr 3 perovskite quantum dots (QDs) are ideal candidate materials for next generation wide color gamut displays, yet their practical application has been hindered by inherent instability. This study achieves in-situ self-crystallization of highly stable and efficient CsPbBr 3 QDs in borosilicate glass (CsPbBr 3 QDs@glass) using ZnO as a glass intermediate oxide. Spectroscopic analyses (FT-IR, Raman, and XPS) reveal that Zn 2+ ions disrupt rigid Si-O-Si and B-O-B bonds to form weaker Zn-O-Si linkages, driving a [BO 4 ] to [BO 3 ] coordination transition. This depolymerization process creates a looser glass network enriched with non-bridging oxygen (NBO), significantly reducing steric hindrance and providing sufficient space for CsPbBr 3 QDs growth. The doping concentration was optimized to 12 mol% ZnO to balance the trade-off luminescence performance between network relaxation and concentration quenching. The optimized sample exhibits an internal quantum efficiency (IQE) as high as 39.8% upon 455 nm excitation. Notably, the CsPbBr 3 QDs@glass retains 52.1% of its initial intensity at 373 K and exhibits negligible attenuation upon cooling. Furthermore, it preserves approximately 97.0% of its luminescence performance even after 10 days of water immersion. Finally, a white LED backlight strip fabricated with the composite exhibits a wide color gamut reaching 124.2% NTSC and 89.4% Rec. 2020 coverage. Assembled into a display screen prototype, the device produces significantly more saturated, vivid green tones than mainstream commercial displays.