One-dimensional nanostructure arrays hold great promise for orthogonalizing light absorption and carrier collection, and thus have been attractive building blocks for next-generation solar cells. Therefore, it is highly desired to build one-dimensional nanostructure arrays of novel photovoltaic materials. In this work, for the first time, the ternary BiSI nanorod arrays have been successfully fabricated on a tungsten substrate for application in solar cells. These nanorods have an oriented growth along the [001] direction. The UV–vis–NIR absorption results demonstrate that the prepared BiSI nanorods exhibit a continuous strong absorption in the entire visible light region with an indirect band gap of 1.57 eV. A solid-state solar-cell device utilizing the as-grown BiSI nanorod arrays as the n-type absorber layer and CuSCN as the p-type window layer is also developed. The assembled solar-cell device can reach a power conversion efficiency of 0.66% with a fill factor of 52.81%. Therefore, the present study reveals the potential of BiSI nanorod arrays as absorber materials for application in low-cost solar cells.

Nickel formate is used for the first time for high-level in situ Ni-doping of g-C3N4 for enhanced photocatalytic activity in both dye-degradation and H2-evolution.

Thin-film photodetectors built from one-dimensional nanostructures have attracted extensive attention due to their significance in basic scientific research and potential technological applications. It is still desirable to develop new materials with a wide response range for application in photodetectors. In this work, a BiSI nanorod cluster film has been successfully fabricated on various rigid substrates by a facile solvothermal method. The component nanorods exhibit an oriented growth along the [001] direction. The UV-Vis-NIR absorption spectrum shows a continuous strong absorption spanning the whole visible light to near-infrared region and presents a direct band gap of 0.83 eV for the prepared BiSI nanorod clusters. The spectral photoresponse of the BiSI-based photodetector device demonstrates a broad photoresponse ranging from ultraviolet to near infrared. The photocurrent results reveal that the photodetector exhibits a more sensitive response towards near-infrared light than visible light. Furthermore, the photodetector based on the BiSI nanorod cluster film shows significantly enhanced photodetection performance compared to BiSI nanorod powder. The photocurrent and on-off ratio of the prepared nanorod cluster film are respectively up to 400 times and several times higher than those of the powder sample. The on-off ratios are about 265 and 66 under NIR illumination and 48 and 11 under visible light for the film and powder samples, respectively. These results suggest a great potential application of the prepared BiSI nanorod cluster film in optoelectronic devices.

For the first time, quaternary chalcogenide CuNi 2 InS 4 nanocrystals with a wurtzite structure have been designed and fabricated as a new magnetic semiconductor. The phase structure analysis suggests that the synthesized wurtzite CuNi 2 InS 4 phase has a disordered structure in which Cu + , Ni 2+ , and In 3+ ions share the same lattice site of the unit cell with a random cation distribution. The prepared CuNi 2 InS 4 nanocrystals have uniform bullet-like morphology, small size distribution, good monodispersity, and high crystallinity. The magnetic properties investigation reveals that the wurtzite CuNi 2 InS 4 nanocrystals can exhibit a weak ferromagnetic moment with the blocking temperature at around 13 K thanks to the disordered wurtzite structure and the high content of magnetic Ni 2+ ions. As for the semiconducting properties, the as-obtained wurtzite CuNi 2 InS 4 nanocrystals show a strong and broad visible light absorption and have a direct bandgap of 1.45 eV. Due to their favorable optical properties, the fabricated thin film of CuNi 2 InS 4 nanocrystals exhibits a good photoelectric response to the solar spectrum, which makes the obtained new phase potential candidate for applications in the photovoltaics. This work demonstrates a new metastable I−II 2 −III−VI 4 chalcogenide that can be used to render multiple functionalities and applications.

Near-infrared (NIR) light induced photothermal cancer therapy using nanomaterials as photothermal agents has attracted considerable research interest over the past few years. As the key factor in the photothermal therapy...