Search

Lead‐free halide double perovskites (HDPs) have emerged as a new generation of thermochromic materials. However, further materials development and mechanistic understanding are required. Here, a highly stable HDP Cs2NaFeCl6 single crystal is synthesized, and its remarkable and fully reversible thermochromism with a wide color variation from light‐yellow to black over a temperature range of 10 to 423 K is investigated. First‐principles, density functional theory (DFT)‐based calculations indicate that the thermochromism in Cs2NaFeCl6 is an effect of electron–phonon coupling. The temperature sensitivity of the bandgap in Cs2NaFeCl6 is up to 2.52 meVK−1 based on the Varshni equation, which is significantly higher than that of lead halide perovskites and many conventional group‐IV, III–V semiconductors. Meanwhile, this material shows excellent environmental, thermal, and thermochromic cycle stability. This work provides valuable insights into HDPs' thermochromism and sheds new light on developing efficient thermochromic materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terahertz (THz) technologies provide opportunities ranging from calibration targets for satellites and telescopes to communication devices and biomedical imaging systems. A main component will be broadband THz absorbers with switchability. However, optically switchable materials in THz are scarce and their modulation is mostly available at narrow bandwidths. Realizing materials with large and broadband modulation in absorption or transmission forms a critical challenge. This study demonstrates that conducting polymer‐cellulose aerogels can provide modulation of broadband THz light with large modulation range from ≈ 13% to 91% absolute transmission, while maintaining specular reflection loss < −30 dB. The exceptional THz modulation is associated with the anomalous optical conductivity peak of conducting polymers, which enhances the absorption in its oxidized state. The study also demonstrates the possibility to reduce the surface hydrophilicity by simple chemical modifications, and shows that broadband absorption of the aerogels at optical frequencies enables de‐frosting by solar‐induced heating. These low‐cost, aqueous solution‐processable, sustainable, and bio‐friendly aerogels may find use in next‐generation intelligent THz devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on perovskites has grown exponentially in the past decade due to the potential of methyl ammonium lead iodide in photovoltaics. Although these devices have achieved remarkable and competitive power conversion efficiency, concerns have been raised regarding the toxicity of lead and its impact on scaling up the technology. Eliminating lead while conserving the performance of photovoltaic devices is a great challenge. To achieve this goal, the research has been expanded to thousands of compounds with similar or loosely related crystal structures and compositions. Some materials are "re-discovered", and some are yet unexplored, but predictions suggest that their potential applications may go beyond photovoltaics, for example, spintronics, photodetection, photocatalysis, and many other areas. This short review aims to present the classification, some current mapping strategies, and advances of lead-free halide double perovskites, their derivatives, lead-free perovskitoid, and low-dimensional related crystals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]