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.

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...

Multinary metal chalcogenides, a remarkable class of materials for designing multifunctionality, possess a broad variety of physical and chemical properties and hold a great promise for a wide range of potential applications. As a typical quaternary I−III−IV−VI 4 group semiconductor, spinel AgInSnS 4 has only received extremely limited attention probably due to difficulty in synthesis. In this work, for the first time, AgInSnS 4 nanocrystals have been successfully fabricated via a simple isomorphous substitution approach using spinel indium sulfide as the parent material. The prepared AgInSnS 4 nanosheets perfectly maintain the cubic spinel structure. The optical absorption results show that the obtained spinel AgInSnS 4 nanocrystals exhibit strong absorption in the visible-light region and have a direct band gap of about 1.54 eV. The band structure analysis indicates that the AgInSnS 4 product should display p-type conduction. Photocurrent measurements reveal that the spin-coated thin film of AgInSnS 4 nanosheets can exhibit a broad, sensitive, fast, and stable photoelectric response. The favorable optical and photocurrent properties suggest a significant potential of the prepared spinel AgInSnS 4 nanocrystals for applications in photovoltaics and other optoelectronic devices.

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