Air-stable bismuth sulfobromide (BiSBr) visible-light absorbers: optoelectronic properties and potential for energy harvesting

Xiaoyu Guo; Yi-Teng Huang; Hugh Lohan; Junzhi Ye; Yuanbao Lin; Juhwan Lim; Nicolas Gauriot; Szymon J. Zelewski; Daniel Darvill; Huimin Zhu; Akshay Rao; Iain McCulloch; Robert L. Z. Hoye

doi:10.1039/D3TA04491B

Air-stable bismuth sulfobromide (BiSBr) visible-light absorbers: optoelectronic properties and potential for energy harvesting

Xiaoyu Guo, Yi-Teng Huang, Hugh Lohan, Junzhi Ye, Yuanbao Lin, Juhwan Lim, Nicolas Gauriot, Szymon J. Zelewski, Daniel Darvill, Huimin Zhu, Akshay Rao, Iain McCulloch, Robert L. Z. Hoye

Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

ns2 compounds have recently attracted considerable interest due to their potential to replicate the defect tolerance of lead-halide perovskites and overcome their toxicity and stability limitations. However, only a handful of compounds beyond the perovskite family have been explored thus far. Herein, we investigate bismuth sulfobromide (BiSBr), which is a quasi-one-dimensional semiconductor, but very little is known about its optoelectronic properties or how it can be processed as thin films. We develop a solution processing route to achieve phase-pure, stoichiometric BiSBr films (ca. 240 nm thick), which we show to be stable in ambient air for over two weeks without encapsulation. The bandgap (1.91 ± 0.06 eV) is ideal for harvesting visible light from common indoor light sources, and we calculate the optical limit in efficiency (i.e., spectroscopic limited maximum efficiency, SLME) to be 43.6% under 1000 lux white light emitting diode illumination. The photoluminescence lifetime is also found to exceed the 1 ns threshold for photovoltaic absorber materials worth further development. Through X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and Kelvin probe measurements, we find the BiSBr films grown to be n-type, with an electron affinity of 4.1 ± 0.1 eV and ionization potential of 6.0 ± 0.1 eV, which are compatible with a wide range of established charge transport layer materials. This work shows BiSBr to hold promise for indoor photovoltaics, as well as other visible-light harvesting applications, such as photoelectrochemical cells, or top-cells for tandem photovoltaics.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	22775-22785
Number of pages	11
Journal	Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Volume	11
Issue number	42
Early online date	25 Sept 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1039/D3TA04491B
Publication status	Published - 25 Sept 2023

Funding

We gratefully thank Prof. Aron Walsh (Imperial College London) for support on the computations made in this work, and Han Bin Cho (Hanyang University) for preparing the triple-cation perovskite thin films that we used here. The authors would like to thank UK Research and Innovation for a Frontier Grant (no. EP/X022900/1), awarded through the 2021 ERC Starting Grant scheme. In addition, the authors thank the Henry Royce Institute for funding through the Industrial Collaborative Programme, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC, no. EP/X527257/1). H. L. would like to acknowledge the use of the University of Oxford Advanced Research Computing (ARC) facility in carrying out this work (http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22558). Additionally, this work used the ARCHER2 UK National Supercomputing Service (https://www.archer2.ac.uk). The authors also acknowledge use of characterization facilities within the David Cockayne Centre for Electron Microscopy, Department of Materials, University of Oxford, alongside financial support provided by the Henry Royce Institute (EPSRC no. EP/R010145/1). Y.-T. H. and R. L. Z. H. also acknowledge support from EPSRC grant no. EP/V014498/2. Y. L. and I. M. would like to acknowledge financial support from KAUST Office of Sponsored Research CRG10, by EU Horizon 2020 grant agreement no. 952911, BOOSTER, grant agreement no. 862474, RoLA-FLEX, and grant agreement no. 101007084 CITYSOLAR, as well as EPSRC (no. EP/T026219/1 and EP/W017091/1). S. J. Z. acknowledges support from the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange within the Bekker program (grant no. PPN/BEK/2020/1/00264/U/00001). H. Z. Acknowledges funding from Iberdrola through the Energy for Future (E4F) Postdoctoral Fellowship (no. 101034297). R. L. Z. H. acknowledges support from the Royal Academy of Engineering through the Research Fellowships scheme (no. RF\201718\17101). We gratefully thank Prof. Aron Walsh (Imperial College London) for support on the computations made in this work, and Han Bin Cho (Hanyang University) for preparing the triple-cation perovskite thin films that we used here. The authors would like to thank UK Research and Innovation for a Frontier Grant (no. EP/X022900/1), awarded through the 2021 ERC Starting Grant scheme. In addition, the authors thank the Henry Royce Institute for funding through the Industrial Collaborative Programme, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC, no. EP/X527257/1). H. L. would like to acknowledge the use of the University of Oxford Advanced Research Computing (ARC) facility in carrying out this work ( http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22558 ). Additionally, this work used the ARCHER2 UK National Supercomputing Service ( https://www.archer2.ac.uk ). The authors also acknowledge use of characterization facilities within the David Cockayne Centre for Electron Microscopy, Department of Materials, University of Oxford, alongside financial support provided by the Henry Royce Institute (EPSRC no. EP/R010145/1). Y.-T. H. and R. L. Z. H. also acknowledge support from EPSRC grant no. EP/V014498/2. Y. L. and I. M. would like to acknowledge financial support from KAUST Office of Sponsored Research CRG10, by EU Horizon 2020 grant agreement no. 952911, BOOSTER, grant agreement no. 862474, RoLA-FLEX, and grant agreement no. 101007084 CITYSOLAR, as well as EPSRC (no. EP/T026219/1 and EP/W017091/1). S. J. Z. acknowledges support from the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange within the Bekker program (grant no. PPN/BEK/2020/1/00264/U/00001). H. Z. Acknowledges funding from Iberdrola through the Energy for Future (E4F) Postdoctoral Fellowship (no. 101034297). R. L. Z. H. acknowledges support from the Royal Academy of Engineering through the Research Fellowships scheme (no. RF\201718\17101).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Keywords

bismuth sulfobromide
optoelectronics
light harvesting

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10.1039/D3TA04491BLicence: CC BY 3.0

Guo-etal-JMCA-2023-Air-stable-bismuth-sulfobromide-(BiSBr)-visible-light-absorbersFinal published version, 1.51 MBLicence: CC BY 3.0

Cite this

Guo, X., Huang, Y.-T., Lohan, H., Ye, J., Lin, Y., Lim, J., Gauriot, N., Zelewski, S. J., Darvill, D., Zhu, H., Rao, A., McCulloch, I., & Hoye, R. L. Z. (2023). Air-stable bismuth sulfobromide (BiSBr) visible-light absorbers: optoelectronic properties and potential for energy harvesting. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 11(42), 22775-22785. https://doi.org/10.1039/D3TA04491B

@article{33571dc175c942aa913f90bb934289be,

title = "Air-stable bismuth sulfobromide (BiSBr) visible-light absorbers: optoelectronic properties and potential for energy harvesting",

abstract = "ns2 compounds have recently attracted considerable interest due to their potential to replicate the defect tolerance of lead-halide perovskites and overcome their toxicity and stability limitations. However, only a handful of compounds beyond the perovskite family have been explored thus far. Herein, we investigate bismuth sulfobromide (BiSBr), which is a quasi-one-dimensional semiconductor, but very little is known about its optoelectronic properties or how it can be processed as thin films. We develop a solution processing route to achieve phase-pure, stoichiometric BiSBr films (ca. 240 nm thick), which we show to be stable in ambient air for over two weeks without encapsulation. The bandgap (1.91 ± 0.06 eV) is ideal for harvesting visible light from common indoor light sources, and we calculate the optical limit in efficiency (i.e., spectroscopic limited maximum efficiency, SLME) to be 43.6\% under 1000 lux white light emitting diode illumination. The photoluminescence lifetime is also found to exceed the 1 ns threshold for photovoltaic absorber materials worth further development. Through X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and Kelvin probe measurements, we find the BiSBr films grown to be n-type, with an electron affinity of 4.1 ± 0.1 eV and ionization potential of 6.0 ± 0.1 eV, which are compatible with a wide range of established charge transport layer materials. This work shows BiSBr to hold promise for indoor photovoltaics, as well as other visible-light harvesting applications, such as photoelectrochemical cells, or top-cells for tandem photovoltaics.",

keywords = "bismuth sulfobromide, optoelectronics, light harvesting",

author = "Xiaoyu Guo and Yi-Teng Huang and Hugh Lohan and Junzhi Ye and Yuanbao Lin and Juhwan Lim and Nicolas Gauriot and Zelewski, \{Szymon J.\} and Daniel Darvill and Huimin Zhu and Akshay Rao and Iain McCulloch and Hoye, \{Robert L. Z.\}",

year = "2023",

month = sep,

day = "25",

doi = "10.1039/D3TA04491B",

language = "English",

volume = "11",

pages = "22775--22785",

journal = "Journal of Materials Chemistry A",

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publisher = "Royal Society of Chemistry",

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Guo, X, Huang, Y-T, Lohan, H, Ye, J, Lin, Y, Lim, J, Gauriot, N, Zelewski, SJ, Darvill, D, Zhu, H, Rao, A, McCulloch, I & Hoye, RLZ 2023, 'Air-stable bismuth sulfobromide (BiSBr) visible-light absorbers: optoelectronic properties and potential for energy harvesting', Journal of Materials Chemistry A, vol. 11, no. 42, pp. 22775-22785. https://doi.org/10.1039/D3TA04491B

TY - JOUR

T1 - Air-stable bismuth sulfobromide (BiSBr) visible-light absorbers

T2 - optoelectronic properties and potential for energy harvesting

AU - Guo, Xiaoyu

AU - Huang, Yi-Teng

AU - Lohan, Hugh

AU - Ye, Junzhi

AU - Lin, Yuanbao

AU - Lim, Juhwan

AU - Gauriot, Nicolas

AU - Zelewski, Szymon J.

AU - Darvill, Daniel

AU - Zhu, Huimin

AU - Rao, Akshay

AU - McCulloch, Iain

AU - Hoye, Robert L. Z.

PY - 2023/9/25

Y1 - 2023/9/25

N2 - ns2 compounds have recently attracted considerable interest due to their potential to replicate the defect tolerance of lead-halide perovskites and overcome their toxicity and stability limitations. However, only a handful of compounds beyond the perovskite family have been explored thus far. Herein, we investigate bismuth sulfobromide (BiSBr), which is a quasi-one-dimensional semiconductor, but very little is known about its optoelectronic properties or how it can be processed as thin films. We develop a solution processing route to achieve phase-pure, stoichiometric BiSBr films (ca. 240 nm thick), which we show to be stable in ambient air for over two weeks without encapsulation. The bandgap (1.91 ± 0.06 eV) is ideal for harvesting visible light from common indoor light sources, and we calculate the optical limit in efficiency (i.e., spectroscopic limited maximum efficiency, SLME) to be 43.6% under 1000 lux white light emitting diode illumination. The photoluminescence lifetime is also found to exceed the 1 ns threshold for photovoltaic absorber materials worth further development. Through X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and Kelvin probe measurements, we find the BiSBr films grown to be n-type, with an electron affinity of 4.1 ± 0.1 eV and ionization potential of 6.0 ± 0.1 eV, which are compatible with a wide range of established charge transport layer materials. This work shows BiSBr to hold promise for indoor photovoltaics, as well as other visible-light harvesting applications, such as photoelectrochemical cells, or top-cells for tandem photovoltaics.

AB - ns2 compounds have recently attracted considerable interest due to their potential to replicate the defect tolerance of lead-halide perovskites and overcome their toxicity and stability limitations. However, only a handful of compounds beyond the perovskite family have been explored thus far. Herein, we investigate bismuth sulfobromide (BiSBr), which is a quasi-one-dimensional semiconductor, but very little is known about its optoelectronic properties or how it can be processed as thin films. We develop a solution processing route to achieve phase-pure, stoichiometric BiSBr films (ca. 240 nm thick), which we show to be stable in ambient air for over two weeks without encapsulation. The bandgap (1.91 ± 0.06 eV) is ideal for harvesting visible light from common indoor light sources, and we calculate the optical limit in efficiency (i.e., spectroscopic limited maximum efficiency, SLME) to be 43.6% under 1000 lux white light emitting diode illumination. The photoluminescence lifetime is also found to exceed the 1 ns threshold for photovoltaic absorber materials worth further development. Through X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and Kelvin probe measurements, we find the BiSBr films grown to be n-type, with an electron affinity of 4.1 ± 0.1 eV and ionization potential of 6.0 ± 0.1 eV, which are compatible with a wide range of established charge transport layer materials. This work shows BiSBr to hold promise for indoor photovoltaics, as well as other visible-light harvesting applications, such as photoelectrochemical cells, or top-cells for tandem photovoltaics.

KW - bismuth sulfobromide

KW - optoelectronics

KW - light harvesting

U2 - 10.1039/D3TA04491B

DO - 10.1039/D3TA04491B

M3 - Article

SN - 2050-7488

VL - 11

SP - 22775

EP - 22785

JO - Journal of Materials Chemistry A

JF - Journal of Materials Chemistry A

IS - 42

ER -

Air-stable bismuth sulfobromide (BiSBr) visible-light absorbers: optoelectronic properties and potential for energy harvesting

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