Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Layered Materials

Abstract

The world’s energy consumption is rising. Conversion of solar energy into electricity has the potential to meet this demand in a sustainable way. Recently, metal halide perovskites have emerged as promising light absorbing materials. However, the highest performing metal halide perovskite solar cells contain lead. Herein, we attempted to synthesize two lead-free perovskite variants, Cs3In2I9 and MA3In2I9 (MA = methylammonium). While Cs3In2I9 did not form under the reaction conditions employed, results from X-ray diffraction, light spectroscopy, and light microscopy lead us to hypothesize that we have successfully prepared MA3In2I9. Future work will characterize the products in more detail in order to test this hypothesis. In addition, we demonstrate the synthesis of the layered ZnS based inorganic-organic hybrid nanomaterials ZnS(1,4-butanediamine)x and ZnS(1,8-octanediamine)x, and the expansion of the ZnS interlayer spacing with diethylene glycol. We aimed to synthesize monolayers of ZnS, which are promising materials for use in water desalination membranes.