Assembly of a cadmium(ii)-based chiral complex: crystal structure and optical properties for solid state white-light emission applications

Abstract

Organic–inorganic complexes are promising candidates for light-emitting applications. In this work, we report a new organo-metallic crystal [Cd(Br)₂(S-1-(1-naphthyl)ethylamine; named S-NA)₂], presenting a tetrahedral Cd(II) complex. The thermal analysis TG/DTA of this complex shows that it is thermally stable up to 300 °C. The solid-state UV-vis spectroscopy analysis exemplifies a large absorption band in the UV and visible region up to 500 nm, making the material suitable for optoelectronic applications. The direct and indirect gap energies were estimated to be 3.76 and 3.65 eV, respectively. The density functional theory exhibits a theoretical indirect band gap of 2.89 eV and presents each atom's contribution to confirm the material's semiconducting features. The photoluminescence analysis reveals a broad-band white-light emission, with a CRI of 92 like that of sunlight x, y (0.33, 0.33).