All Inorganic Lead-free Perovskites for Photocatalysis: Preparation and Absorption Study

One of the crucial challenges in current century is to overcome worldwide environmental crisis of growing water and air pollution. The recent trend in research focuses on developing novel materials to overcome these issues. All inorganic lead free perovskite materials can be very promising materials for photocatalytic devices not only from technical aspects but also from environmental aspects. In this work, cesium germanium iodide (CsGeI
3
) and cesium stannous bromide (CsSnBr
3
) have been prepared by co-precipitation method. Formation of crystalline phases of the materials are confirmed by X-ray diffraction studies, however, the presence of other phases indicates incomplete reaction or immediate decomposition of the perovskite materials. Moreover, band gap of the materials determined from absorption studies also confirm the decomposition of perovskite materials on exposure to air. There is a scope to prevent decomposition and improve the stability either by optimizing synthesis parameters or incorporating stable additives. This will lead to development of low cost but efficient photocatalysts for making our environment better.