Proceedings of Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MAT-SUS) (NFM22)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.nfm.2022.019
Publication date: 11th July 2022
Bismuth-halide-based semiconductors have gained increasing attention for optoelectronics, owing to their low toxicity, high environmental stability under ambient conditions, and easy processability by a wide range of scalable methods. These materials have also been proposed to replicate key features of the electronic structure of lead-halide perovskites that may give rise to defect tolerance, but without the toxicity limitations of the latter [1]. This talk will examine in detail the case of bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI). Through density functional theory calculations, we show that the most common point defects in BiOI are resonant within the bands, or shallow within the bandgap [2]. We develop an all-inorganic device structure, and devise a route to control the preferred orientation of the vapour-deposited BiOI films to achieve photovoltaics with external quantum efficiencies reaching up to 80% at 450 nm wavelength [2]. Further, we demonstrate the strong potential of BiOI for indoor light harvesting to power Internet of Things electronics [3], as well as for bias-free solar water and CO2 splitting [4]. We finish with a discussion of the key factors that will need to be addressed in order to further improve the performance of this material in optoelectronics, focussing especially on the role of carrier-phonon coupling on charge-carrier transport and dynamics.
Funding is acknowledged from the Royal Academy of Engineering through the Research Fellowships scheme (No.: RF\201718\1701)