The environmental
toxicity of Pb in inorganic–organic hybrid perovskite presents
a major hurdle to commercialization, which has triggered intense research
on exploring Pb-free alternatives. Soft interaction, especially Coulomb
interaction not only enriching the synthesis strategy but endowing
a unique property to the derived materials, is appealing for constructing
Pb-free alternatives; however, less has been reported. We herein demonstrate
the construction of a Sb-based hybrid perovskite-like semiconductor
(3-phenylpyridin-1-ium)SbI4 (denoted as 3ppi-SbI
4
) via the “Coulomb interaction strategy”.
Therein, the zigza (SbI4)− chains interact
with the 3ppi countercations through Coulomb interaction
only in the crystal lattice. It has good moisture, sunlight, and UV
light stabilities. Further, 3ppi-SbI
4
exhibits excellent light absorption, direct band gap feature,
good photoconduction, and excellent repeatability of photocurrent,
which all imply its potential as a Pb-free, light-absorbing candidate
for optoelectronic application. Theoretical calculations disclose
that the photoresponse is mainly ascribed to the electron transitions
within (SbI4)− chains, as well as between
inorganic and organic moieties.