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perovskite solar cell is about 1% in air. Although it is found that where ΔU is the internal energy, ΔS is the variation in the
Cs2SnI6 is more stable than methylammonium lead iodide entropy of mixing of compound, and T is the absolute
perovskite, its stability is insufficient.[11] temperature.
Doping is a useful strategy to improve the properties of
CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite.[6b,6d] Doping strategy has also been ΔU ¼ ECs2 Snð1xÞ Gex I6 xECs2 GeI6 ð1 xÞECs2 SnI6 ð2Þ
used in low dimensional perovskites to tune their properties.[12]
Recently, Cheng et al.[13] have successfully synthesized a series of where ECs2 Snð1xÞ Gex I6 , ECs2 GeI6 , and ECs2 SnI6 stand for the energy of
2D mixed Ge-Sn perovskites, which shows that doping Ge into Cs2Sn(1x)GexI6, Cs2GeI6, and Cs2SnI6, respectively. x is the
the Sn-based perovskite is suitable. In order to further optimize concentration of Ge4þ, and in our study, we adopted the x values
the properties of Cs2SnI6, doping means have been used, as the of 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1.0, respectively.
A2BX6 type perovskite can be readily doped with different And the ΔS was evaluated by the method close to the ideal
impurity ions, especially in the sixfold coordinated tetravalent solution expression:
cation site. In this paper, we studied the effect of different
concentration of Ge4þ doping on the electronic and mechanical ΔS ¼ kB ½xlnx þ ð1 xÞlnð1 xÞ ð3Þ
properties of Cs2SnI6. Our results can be of helpful guidance for
the development of toxic-free and stable perovskite solar cells. where kB is the Boltzman constant.
Walsh et al.[20] have used the above method successfully
to assess the thermodynamic stability of mixed CH3NH3Pb
2. Methods (I1xBrx)3.
2.1. First-Principles Calculations
2.3. Mechanical Computation
All first-principles calculations were performed in the Vienna Ab
initio Simulation Package (VASP).[14] The projector augmented- The elastic constants were calculated using the finite strain
wave (PAW) method[15] was used, and the valence electron theory[21] to predict the mechanical stability of cubic crystal of
configurations of Cs, Ge, Sn, and I were taken as 5s25p66s1, mixed compound Cs2Sn(1x) GexI6. There are three independent
3d104s24p5, 4d105s25p5, and 5s25p5, respectively. The convergence elastic constants (C11, C12, and C44) of cubic crystal. First,
criteria of energy and forces are 105 eV and 0.01 eV Å 1, according to Hill approximations,[22] we calculated the bulk
respectively. We have tested the cutoff energy and k-points modulus (K) and shear modulus (G) from the values of elastic
(detailed information is in the supporting information). Finally, a constants. Second, the Young’s modulus (E) and Poisson ratio (v)
plane-wave kinetic cutoff energy of 400 eV was used for the were calculated from the values of bulk modulus and shear
structure optimization and electronic properties calculation, and modulus using the formula[23]
the Brillouin-zone integrations were performed using a 4 4 4
k-point mesh. The generalized gradient approximation (GGA) due E ¼ ð9KGÞ=ð3K þ GÞ ð4Þ
to Perdew, Burke, and Ernzerhof (PBE) was employed for all
geometry optimizations.[16] For the band gap of Cs2SnI6, the PBE
method severely understands its value, so the expensive HSE06 v ¼ ð3K 2GÞ=ð6K þ 2GÞ ð5Þ
method was used for the calculation of the band gap. Spin-orbit
coupling effect (SOC) can significantly lower the calculated band As we know, Tesfamichael and coworkers have used these
gap of perovskite containing heavy element Pb.[17] We compared methods successfully to calculate elastic modulus of ABX3 type
the value of Cs2SnI6 band gap (1.04 eV) calculated using HSE06 perovskite material,[23] which indicates that this method is
method by us with that (1.011 eV) calculated by Asta and reliable to characterize the ductility and flexibility of the
coworkers[18] using HSE06 including SOC, which shows that perovskite material.
the effect of SOC is small for calculated band gap of Sn-based
perovskite. Ge is lighter than Sn, so the SOC effect is even smaller
for calculated band gap of Ge-containing perovskite. Therefore, in 3. Results and Discussion
our calculation, the SOC effect was not taken into consideration.
3.1. The Geometry Structure Analysis
The VESTA code was used to view the structures.[19]
The vacancy-ordered double perovskite material, whose chemi-
cal formula is A2BX6 (A is monovalent cation, B is the tetravalent
2.2. Mixing Thermodynamics metal cation, and X is the halide anion), can be regarded as a
derivative structure of the traditional ABX3 by orderly deleting
To examine the effect of cation substitution, the same method as B2þ cation.[24] In these materials, Cs2SnI6 is a representative,
that used by Walsh et al.[20] was applied. We also evaluated the which belongs to face-centered cubic crystal with a space group
Helmhotz free energy (ΔF) of the mixed compound of Fm-3m.[25] The missing of tin cation results in interruption
Cs2Sn(1x)GexI6 according to the following equation: between SnI6 frame octahedrons and discrete ions. Therefore,
some researchers classified Cs2SnI6 as zero dimensional (0D)
ΔF ¼ ΔU TΔS ð1Þ material.[26] But this material still maintains three dimensional
Phys. Status Solidi B 2019, 256, 1800427 1800427 (2 of 7) © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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Table 1. The optimized crystal parameters of Cs2Sn(1x)GexI6 by PBE doping structures with x ¼ 0.5 have identical crystal cell
method. parameters, which means that the doping site does not influence
the crystal cell parameters. For the traditional ABX3 type
x a [Å ] b [Å ] c [Å ] α [ ] β [ ] γ [ ] perovskite, doping small cation in B site can result in the tilt of
PBE 0 12.04 12.04 12.04 90.00 90.00 90.00 BX6 and contraction of cell.[28] In our study, it is not found that
Exp. 0 11.63 11.63 11.63 90.00 90.00 90.00
the BI6 frame tilts up when doping Ge4þ in the Cs2SnI6 vacancy-
ordered double perovskite, but the contraction of cell is observed
PBE 0.25 12.00 12.00 12.00 90.00 90.00 90.00
as shown in Figure 2, which shows that the volume of crystal cell
0.5 11.92 11.94 11.93 90.00 90.00 90.00 gets smaller with the increasing concentration of Ge4þ.
0.75 11.86 11.86 11.86 90.00 90.00 90.00 Contraction of cell resulted from doping Ge4þ in Cs2SnI6
1 11.81 11.80 11.81 90.00 90.00 90.00 may influence the material electronic structure, which will be
discussed later.
Experimental parameters refer to reference [21] (errors: 3.5%).
3.2. Thermodynamics
(3D) structure and shows 3D materials’ properties, so other
researchers still classified it as 3D material.[27] In this paper, The Goldschmidt tolerance factor (t) is used to evaluate whether
Kanatzidis’s experimental data[25] about the Cs2SnI6 crystal the cation can be replaced in perovskite material. The factor has
structure was used to build the initial crystal structure. The GGA- been widely used by previous researchers.[29] The formula is as
PBE method has been used to optimize the Cs2SnI6 by Mark and follows:
coworkers.[18] So we used PBE method to optimize pure Cs2SnI6
crystal cell and Cs2SnI6 crystal cells doped with Ge4þ. The rA þ rX
t ¼ pffiffiffi ð6Þ
optimized crystal parameters have been listed in Table 1. 2ðr B þ r X Þ
In order to determine the effect of doping Ge4þ, we have
considered the doping concentration of Ge4þ with x ¼ 0, 0.25, where rA, rB, and rX are ionic radius of A, B, and X (i.e., rCs ¼ 1.88
0.5, 0.75, and 1, namely, Cs2SnI6, Cs2Sn0.75Ge0.25I6, for Csþ, rGe ¼ 0.53 for Ge4þ, rSn ¼ 0.69 for Sn4þ, and rI ¼ 2.20 for
Cs2Sn0.5Ge0.5I6, Cs2Sn0.25Ge0.75I6, and Cs2GeI6. Furthermore, I).[30] The range of 0.9 t 1 is generally viewed as a good fit
we used the PBE method to optimize these crystal cells. The for cubic perovskites. Our calculated results of t are 1.00, 1.05 for
calculated crystal data were listed in Table 1 and the optimized Cs2SnI6 and Cs2GeI6, respectively. These results preliminarily
structures were plotted in Figure 1. For x ¼ 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75, show that substitution of Ge4þ for Sn4þ in Cs2SnI6 is suitable. In
two doping structures were considered, that is, face-center order to further explore the effect of Ge4þ substitution on the
substitution denoted as f and including apex substitution stability of Cs2SnI6, we have also calculated Helmholtz free
denoted as p shown in Figure 1. For x ¼ 0.25 and 0.75, two types energy ΔF of the systems with different concentrations of doping
are same, which can be interconverted by translation of a vector Ge4þ (x ¼ 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75) at different temperatures (T ¼ 0,
(0 0.5 0.5). So only when x ¼ 0.5, the two types are different. 100, 150, 300, and 350 K). The data were listed in Table S2,
From Table S1, Supporting Information, we can see that the two Supporting Information. First, we compared the two types (f, p)
Figure 1. The optimized structure of Cs2Sn(1x)GexI6. Since the Cs2SnI6 belongs to the face cubic crystal, for the x ¼ 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, we considered two
substitution, face substitution (marked as f) and apex substitution (marked as p), respectively. For x ¼ 0.25 and 0.75, two types are same, which can be
interconverted by translation of a vector (0, 0.5, 0.5). So only when x ¼ 0.5, the two types are different.
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4. Conclusion
In summary, we have explored the effect of Ge4þ
doping on the Cs2SnI6 vacancy-ordered double
perovskite material. Our results show that the
volume of crystal cell contracts with the increasing
of concentration of Ge4þ. Furthermore, the band
gap decreases with the increasing of concentration
of Ge4þ, which means that one can obtain desired
band gap by controlling concentration of Ge4þ in
vacancy-ordered double perovskite Cs2Sn(1x)GexI6.
Finally, we found that the mixing compound
Cs2Sn0.75Ge0.25I6 possess the best thermodynamic
stability, electronic and mechanical properties
compared with other compounds (x ¼ 0, 0.5, 0.75,
and 1). Our work is helpful for designing Pb-free
inorganic perovskite materials, which is beneficial
to the perovskite solar cells.
Supporting Information
Supporting Information is available from the Wiley Online
Library or from the author.
Acknowledgements
Figure 7. The charge density of VBM and CBM of (a) Cs2SnI6 and (b); Cs2Sn0.75Ge0.25I6, This work was supported by the National Natural Science
(c) simplified energy diagrams depicting the formation of VBM and CBM for Cs2SnI6 Foundation of China (21473010).
(left) and Cs2Sn0.75Ge0.25I6 (right).
the influence factor of elastic constant C11 in the supporting Conflict of Interest
information). This means that the vacancy-ordered double The authors declare no conflict of interest.
perovskite Cs2Sn0.75Ge0.25I6 can form high quality film to
improve the efficiency of PSCs.
The Poisson ratio and the Pugh’s ratio defined as the ratio of Keywords
the bulk modulus to shear modulus (K/G) are considered as
criteria to predict the ductility and brittleness of a material. The first-principles calculations, lead-free perovskites, perovskite solar cells,
material is taken as ductile when the value of Pugh’s ratio is vacancy-ordered double perovskites
greater than 1.75 or the value of Poisson ratio is greater than
0.26, otherwise it is brittle. Furthermore, higher values of Pugh’s Received: August 10, 2018
ratio and Poisson ratio indicate more better ductility of a Revised: September 24, 2018
material.[23,34] The calculated values of Pugh’s ratio are 1.94, Published online: November 2, 2018
2.42, and 2.12 and the values of Poisson ratio are 0.28, 0.32, and
0.30 for x ¼ 0, 0.25, and 0.5, respectively. By comparing the value
of Pugh’s ratio and Poisson ratio of these compounds, it is shown [1] National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREl), Best Research-Cell
that the compounds with x ¼ 0.25 is more ductile. This is Efficiencies: https://www.nrel.gov/pv/assets/images/efficiency_
chart.jpg (accessed: August 2018).
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Phys. Status Solidi B 2019, 256, 1800427 1800427 (6 of 7) © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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