Project Description

Organic-inorganic hybrid halide perovskites are emerging semiconductor materials with excellent optical and electronic properties. Over the last several years, there has been tremendous progress in the development of high-performance solar cells and light-emitting diodes using these materials. Because of the ionic nature of the chemical bonding and the great solubility in common organic solvents, low-temperature solution-processing approach is usually employed to process the materials and fabricate the devices. However, the practical applications of the halide perovskites are limited by poor stability due to the weak chemical bonding and ion migration under electrical bias. Here, we propose a new type of perovskite-type material by replacing chemically reactive halides with chalcogenides while maintain the excellent optoelectronic properties. Chemical synthesis and structural and ultrafast spectroscopy characterizations will be performed to identify new promising candidates with a direct band gap and a long carrier diffusion length. Proto-type solar cell devices will be fabricated using these promising new materials. Any proposals and new ideas associated with this concept from the candidates are also welcomed. 

Start Date

July 2021

Postdoc Qualifications

PhD in chemistry, materials science, chemical engineering or related fields. Hand-on experience with nanomaterials synthesis and characterization and ultrafast spectroscopy.  

Co-Advisors

Rakesh Agrawal (Chemical Engineering) Email: agrawalr@purdue.edu

Libai Huang (Chemistry) Email: libai-huang@purdue.edu

Letian Dou (Chemical Engineering) Email: dou10@purdue.edu

References

B. Graeser, R. Agrawal*; Pure phase synthesis of Cu3PS4 and Cu6PS5Cl for semiconductor applications. RSC Adv. 2018, 8, 34094-34101.

S. A. McClary, R. B. Balow, R. Agrawal*; Role of annealing atmosphere on the crystal structure and composition of tetrahedrite–tennantite alloy nanoparticles. J. Mat. Chem. C. 2018, 6, 10538-10546.

Zhi Guo, Yan Wan, Mengjin Yang, Jordan Snaider, Kai Zhu, Libai Huang*; “Long-range hot-carrier transport in hybrid perovskites visualized by ultrafast microscopy”, Science, 2017, 356, 59-62.

Jordan M. Snaider, Zhi Guo, Ti Wang, Mengjin Yang, Long Yuan, Kai Zhu, and Libai Huang*; “Ultrafast Imaging of Carrier Transport across Grain Boundaries in Hybrid Perovskite Thin Films”, ACS Energy Letters 2018, 3, 1402-1408.

Yao Gao, Enzheng Shi, Shibin Deng, Stephen B. Shiring, Jordan M. Snaider, Brett M. Savoie, Libai Huang, Letian Dou*; “Molecular Engineering of Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Perovskites Quantum Wells”, Nature Chemistry 2019, 11, 1151-1157.