31 May Ivan Caño and Edgardo Saucedo have participated in the 2024 MRS Spring Meeting, in Seattle (Washington)

The MRS (Materials Research Society) is one of the foremost international organizations focused on promoting communication and advancement in materials science research and industry. The MRS Spring Meeting is one of the main events organized by the association in order to develop scientific networks and exchange results and technical information for international participants. The opportunity to present and debate the SENSATE results in this meeting is an important step to establish international collaborations and communicate our work with the materials science worldwide community.

Ivan Caño has attended and participated in the MRS 2024 Spring Meeting, presenting the work “Emerging chalcogenides: a new family of perovskite-inspired sustainable energy materials” as an oral presentation. This work was focused on presenting new families of perovskite-inspired emerging chalcogenide materials. These include silver and copper chalcohalides – (Ag,Cu)3SX (X=I,Br), which stand out for their crystalline structure analogous to perovskites, albeit switching cation sites by anions and vice-versa. They are constituted by earth-abundant and non-toxic components, and the bandgap in the 0.9-1 eV range indicates that they can be suitable for single-junction solar cells or tandem configurations. In particular, Ivan presented a new method to prepare Ag3SX (X=I,Br) polycrystalline films by molecular precursor ink deposition. This methodology offers advantages in terms of cost-effectiveness, versatility, scalability and sustainability.

Another interesting approach to develop perovskite-inspired materials consists in developing materials which are electronically analogous to perovskites. Thus, it is expected that materials with similar electronic structure, such as ternary chalcohalides SbSeX (X=I,Br), can replicate the beneficial defect tolerance of perovskites. These materials are also constituted by relatively earth-abundant and low toxic components, they are stable, have bandgaps in the 1.5-2.0 eV range, and can be fabricated at low temperature, making them ideal as a viable alternative to perovskites. Ivan presented experimental and theoretical analyses, including the characteristics of the band structure (obtained by first-principle calculations), structural and optical properties, and prototype PV devices, demonstrating their potential as a sustainable alternative for energy harvesting applications.

Furthermore, other members of Prof. Edgardo Saucedo’s group presented other work on emerging materials, including chalcohalides (Alejandro Navarro), selenium (Arnau Torrens), and methods for advanced synthesis procedures (David Rovira).