Unravelling the Interfacial Dynamics of Bandgap Funneling in Bismuth-Based Halide Perovskites

Yunqi Tang; Chun Hong Mak; Jun Zhang; Guohua Jia; Kuan-Chen Cheng; Haisheng Song; Mingjian Yuan; Shijun Zhao; Ji-Jung Kai; Juan Carlos Colmenares; Hsien-Yi Hsu

doi:10.1002/adma.202207835

Unravelling the Interfacial Dynamics of Bandgap Funneling in Bismuth-Based Halide Perovskites

Adv Mater. 2023 Jan;35(2):e2207835. doi: 10.1002/adma.202207835. Epub 2022 Nov 18.

Authors

Yunqi Tang^{1

2}, Chun Hong Mak^{1

2}, Jun Zhang³, Guohua Jia⁴, Kuan-Chen Cheng^{5

6

7

8}, Haisheng Song⁹, Mingjian Yuan¹⁰, Shijun Zhao³, Ji-Jung Kai³, Juan Carlos Colmenares¹¹, Hsien-Yi Hsu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Energy and Environment, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China.
² Shenzhen Research Institute of City University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, 518057, P. R. China.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China.
⁴ Curtin Institute of Functional Molecules and Interfaces, School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA, 6845, Australia.
⁵ Graduate Institute of Food Science Technology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan.
⁶ Institute of Biotechnology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan.
⁷ Department of Optometry, Asia University, 500 Lioufeng Rd., Wufeng, Taichung, 41354, Taiwan.
⁸ Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
⁹ Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO) and School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, P. R. China.
¹⁰ Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Renewable Energy Conversion and Storage Center (RECAST), College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, P. R. China.
¹¹ Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, 01-224, Poland.

PMID: 36245308
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202207835

Abstract

An environmentally friendly mixed-halide perovskite MA₃ Bi₂ Cl_9- _x I_x with a bandgap funnel structure has been developed. However, the dynamic interfacial interactions of bandgap funneling in MA₃ Bi₂ Cl_9- _x I_x perovskites in the photoelectrochemical (PEC) system remain ambiguous. In light of this, single- and mixed-halide lead-free bismuth-based hybrid perovskites-MA₃ Bi₂ Cl_9- _y I_y and MA₃ Bi₂ I₉ (named MBCl-I and MBI)-in the presence and absence of the bandgap funnel structure, respectively, are prepared. Using temperature-dependent transient photoluminescence and electrochemical voltammetric techniques, the photophysical and (photo)electrochemical phenomena of solid-solid and solid-liquid interfaces for MBCl-I and MBI halide perovskites are therefore confirmed. Concerning the mixed-halide hybrid perovskites MBCl-I with a bandgap funnel structure, stronger electronic coupling arising from an enhanced overlap of electronic wavefunctions results in more efficient exciton transport. Besides, MBCl-I's effective diffusion coefficient and electron-transfer rate demonstrate efficient heterogeneous charge transfer at the solid-liquid interface, generating improved photoelectrochemical hydrogen production. Consequently, this combination of photophysical and electrochemical techniques opens up an avenue to explore the intrinsic and interfacial properties of semiconductor materials for elucidating the correlation between material characterization and device performance.

Keywords: interfacial dynamics; lead-free halide perovskites; photoelectrocatalysis.

Abstract

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