Beyond Perovskite Solar Cells: Tellurium Iodide as a Promising Light‐Absorbing Material for Solution‐Processed Photovoltaic Application

Searching new light‐absorbing materials to replace toxic lead halide in solar cells is very important and highly desirable. In this research, we firstly demonstrated that tellurium iodide (TeI₄) could be used as a light‐absorbing material in solar cells due to its suitable optical band gap and the active lone‐pair electron orbital in Te⁴⁺. The best power conversion efficiency (PCE=3.56%) was achieved with a concentration of 0.9 M TeI₄ in DMF:DMSO (4 : 1, v,v) without any heat treatment or antisolvent dripping. Our study indicates the promising potential of TeI₄ for photovoltaic and optoelectronic applications.