Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering (MSMSE), Wright State University, 2018, Materials Science and Engineering

Solar technology has a long history of incremental improvements in cost, reliability and efficiency. However, solar cells based on lead halide perovskite films have made more rapid leaps forward in the past 10 years, making it the fastest growing solar technology in terms of efficiency. Leaders in academia and industry continue to find success in overcoming manufacturability and stability issues, but have not yet discovered a high-efficiency perovskite film without the use of toxic lead. Probing less toxic analogs to the highly efficient lead halide, a series of thin films with perovskite structures, i.e. A2BB'X6 where A = Cs or FA, B/B' = Sn, Bi, Sb, Ag, and/or In and X = I, are fabricated using a mixed metal approach. XRD patterns reveal the low dimensional A3Bi2I9 crystal. UV/Vis spectra results show that the bandgap of bismuth-based perovskites is finely tuned, which has potential applications in future solar cells.

Committee: Hong Huang Ph.D. (Advisor); Maher Amer Ph.D. (Committee Member); Suzanne Lunsford Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Materials Science