High-Quality Data Enabling Universality of Band Gap Descriptor and Discovery of Photovoltaic Perovskites

Extensive machine-learning-assisted research has been dedicated to predicting band gaps for perovskites, driven by their immense potential in photovoltaics. Yet, the effectiveness is often hampered by the lack of high-quality band gap data sets, particularly for perovskites involving d orbitals. In this work, we consistently calculate a large data set of band gaps with a high level of accuracy, which is rigorously validated by experimental and state-of-the-art GW band gaps. Leveraging this achievement, our machine-learning-derived descriptor exhibits exceptional universality and robustness, proving effectiveness not only for single and double, halide and oxide perovskites regardless of the underlying atomic structures but also for hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites. With this approach, we comprehensively explore up to 15,659 materials, unveiling 14 unreported lead-free perovskites with suitable band gaps for photovoltaics. Notably, MASnBr₃, FA₂SnGeBr₆, MA₂AuAuBr₆, FA₂AuAuBr₆, FA₂InBiCl₆, FA₂InBiBr₆, and Ba₂InBiO₆ stand out with direct band gaps, small effective masses, low exciton binding energies, and high stabilities.