A study on the nature of the thermal decomposition of methylammonium lead iodide perovskite, CH3NH3PbI3: an attempt to rationalise contradictory experimental results
The nature of the gas phase product released during the thermal decomposition of CH3NH3PbI3 (methylammonium lead iodide) to PbI2 (lead diiodide) under vacuum is discussed on the basis of thermodynamic predictions, recently published experimental results, and new experiments presented here. From the limited data currently available, the nature of the main decomposition path is not clear because, both, the process releasing HI(g) + CH3NH2(g) (1) and that leading to NH3(g) + CH3I(g) (2) were observed under different conditions.