Lead-Free Solid State Mechanochemical Synthesis of Cs2NaBi1–xFexCl6 Double Perovskite: Reduces Band Gap and Enhances Optical Properties

Efficient and stable lead-free halide double perovskites (DPs) have attracted great attention for the future generation of electronic devices. Herein, we have developed a doping approach to incorporate Fe3+ ions into the Cs2NaBiCl6 crystal unit and reveal a crystallographic and optoelectronic study of the Cs2NaBi1–xFexCl6 double perovskite. We report a simple solid-state mechanochemical method that has a solvent-free, one-step, green chemistry approach for the synthesis of Cs2NaBi1–xFexCl6 phosphor. The analysis of powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) data determines the contraction of the lattice due to the incorporation of Fe3+ cations, and this effect is well supported by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Raman spectroscopy, and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (ss-NMR). The band gap is reduced with increasing Fe content owing to the strong overlap of the Fe-3d orbitals with Cl-3p orbitals and shift of the valence band maxima (VBM) toward higher energies, as confirmed by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) and density functional theory (DFT) analyses. Photoluminescence (PL) studies of Cs2NaBi1–xFexCl6 phosphors exhibit a large Stokes shift, broadband emission, and increased PL intensity more than ten times for 15% of Fe content phosphor with enhancement in the average decay lifetimes (up to 38 ns) compared to pristine Cs2NaBiCl6 DP. These results indicate that the transition of dark self-trapping of excitons (STEs) into bright STEs enhances yellow emission. XRD, UV, and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) confirmed that the Cs2NaB1–xFexCl6 DPs have good structural and thermal stabilities. Our findings indicate that the doping of Fe3+ cations into the Cs2NaBiCl6 lattice is a constructive strategy to enhance significantly the optoelectronic properties of these phosphors.