This Perspective outlines basic structural and optical properties of lead halide perovskite colloidal nanocrystals, highlighting differences and similarities between them and conventional II–VI and III–V semiconductor quantum dots. A detailed insight into two important issues inherent to lead halide perovskite nanocrystals then follows, namely, the advantages of defect tolerance and the necessity to improve their stability in environmental conditions. The defect tolerance of lead halide perovskites offers an impetus to search for similar attributes in other related heavy metal-free compounds. We discuss the origins of the significantly blue-shifted emission from CsPbBr₃ nanocrystals and the synthetic strategies toward fabrication of stable perovskite nanocrystal materials with emission in the red and infrared parts of the optical spectrum, which are related to fabrication of mixed cation compounds guided by Goldschmidt tolerance factor considerations. We conclude with the view on perspectives of use of the colloidal perovskite nanocrystals for applications in backlighting of liquid-crystal TV displays.

The chemistry, material processing and fundamental understanding of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots) are advancing at an astounding rate, bringing the prospects of widespread commercialization of these novel and exciting materials ever closer. Interest in narrow bandgap nanocrystals in particular has intensified in recent years, and the results of research worldwide point to the realistic prospects of applications for these materials in solar cells, infrared optoelectronics (e.g. lasers, optical modulators, photodetectors and photoimaging devices), low cost/large format microelectronics, and in biological imaging and biosensor systems to name only some technologies. Improvements in fundamental understanding and material quality are built on a vast body of experience spread over many different methods of colloidal synthetic growth, each with their own strengths and weaknesses for different materials and sometimes with regard to particular applications. The nanocrystal growth expertise is matched by a rapidly expanding, and highly interdisciplinary, understanding of how best to assemble these materials into films or hybrid composites and thereby into useful devices, and again there are many different strategies that can be adopted. In this review we have attempted to survey and compare the recent work on colloidal synthesis, film and nanocrystal composite material fabrication, concentrating on narrow bandgap chalcogenide materials and some of their topical applications in the solar energy and biological fields. Since these applications are attracting rising interest across a wide range of disciplines, from the biological sciences, device engineering, and materials processing fields as well as the physics and synthetic chemistry communities, we have endeavoured to make the review of these narrow bandgap nanomaterials both comprehensive and accessible to newcomers to the area.