AgBiI₄ as a Lead-Free Solar Absorber with Potential Application in Photovoltaics

Abstract

High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide AgBiI 4 powder, crystals, and polycrystalline films were synthesized by sealed tube solid state reactions, chemical vapor transport (CVT), and solution processing, respectively, and their structural, optical and electronic properties are reported. The structure of AgBiI 4 is based unambiguously upon a cubic close packed iodide sublattice, but it presents an unusual crystallographic problem: we show that the reported structure, a cubic defect-spinel, cannot be distinguished from a metrically cubic layered structure analogous to CdCl 2 using either powder or single crystal X-ray crystallography. In addition, we demonstrate the existence a noncubic CdCl 2 -type polymorph by isolation of nontwinned single crystals. The indirect optical band gap of AgBiI 4 is measured to be 1.63(1) eV, comparable to the indirect band gap of 1.69(1) eV measured for BiI 3 and smaller than that reported for other bismuth halides, suggesting that structures with a close-packed iodide sublattice may give narrower band gaps than those with perovskite structures. Band edge states closely resemble those of BiI 3; however, the p-type nature of AgBiI 4 with low carrier concentration is more similar to MAPbI 3 than the n-type BiI 3 . AgBiI 4 shows good stability toward the AM1.5 solar spectrum when kept in a sealed environment and is thermally stable below 90 °C.