Beyond efficiency fever: Preventing lead leakage for perovskite solar cells

Wu, Pengfei; Wang, Shirong; Zhao, Xiaoming; Zhang, Fei

doi:10.1016/j.matt.2022.02.012

Cited by 52 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 118 publications

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“…Furthermore, Pb recycling methods were also developed to mitigate the environmental impacts of PSCs beyond their lifespan. Some recent reviews have provided one or some of the abovementioned aspects in Pb management of PSCs, [ 21,37,38 ] while a comprehensive review of Pb management of emerging Pb PVs is still lacking within the community. As a result, it is important to account for the development and provide insights for the environmental impact assessment, Pb 2+ leakage mitigation, and recycling toward their large‐scale commercialization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecotoxicity and Sustainability of Emerging Pb‐Based Photovoltaics

Yan

Feng

et al. 2022

Solar RRL

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Metal halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are established as a highly promising next-generation photovoltaics (PVs) technology due to their superior optoelectronic properties, such as high light absorption coefficient, long carrier diffusion length, high carrier excitation, and transport ability. [1][2][3][4][5] In just a few years, it has achieved a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of over 25.7%, comparable to silicon PVs. [6][7][8][9] While Pb-based PSCs exhibit exceptional promise for mass production, [10][11][12] there are growing concerns about their environmental impact due to the potential toxicity and leaching of harmful Pb species throughout their lifetime.Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) are another promising candidate for the nextgeneration PV application, which has received enormous attention because of the excellent optical and electronic properties enabled by their unique size-dependent quantum confinement. [13][14][15] Pb chalcogenide QDs (e.g., PbS, PbSe) are among the most promising nanoparticle (NP) materials in PVs, with certified PCEs as high as 13.8% in PbS QDSCs. [16,17] The low-cost and scalable solution-based processing methods can offer QDs a wide range of bandgaps, and generally better stability than organic chromophores. Despite the continuously increasing PCEs of QDSCs, device stability remains a significant challenge for industrial applications. Beyond PV, QDs have further demonstrated their promising application in biomedical imaging, display and electronics industries. Similar to Pb-based PSCs, growing concerns also arise from their potential Pb 2þ toxicity, Emerging Pb-based photovoltaic (PV) technologies, including in particular solution processed halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) and Pb chalcogenide quantum dot solar cells (QDSCs), are among the most promising next-generation PV technologies for a range of disruptive energy and electronic applications. However, the potential toxicity and leakage of hazardous Pb species have become one of the main barriers to their large-scale application. When solar cells are subject to physical damage or failure of encapsulation, rapid leakage of Pb may occur, which can be accelerated by exposure to external environmental weathering conditions such as rainfall and elevated temperature. Herein, an in-depth investigation on the essential role of Pb in PSCs and QDSCs, as well as common causes of Pb leakage, is undertaken. The hazardous effects of Pb toxicity on soil plants, bacteria, animals, and human cells are also evaluated. Recent progress in developing effective strategies for Pb leakage reduction, such as Pb-free or Pb-less perovskite materials, device architecture design, encapsulation absorbers for PSCs, and core-shell structure and ligand exchange method for QDSCs, in addition to Pb recycling strategies of end-of-life solar cells are summarized. This review provides quantitative insights into the future development of eco-friendly emerging Pb-based PV technologies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecotoxicity and Sustainability of Emerging Pb‐Based Photovoltaics

Yan

Feng

et al. 2022

Solar RRL

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“…This implies that the PCE of PSCs is no longer a limitation for commercialization. Despite their promise, there still exist the toxicity issues associated with the Pb content of high-performing PSCs during a photovoltaic device’s lifetime . A direct strategy to avoid a potential threat to the environment is to completely replace the Pb counterpart in the perovskite crystal structure, but all currently used lead-free perovskites like tin-containing perovskite are facing intractable problems such as poor stability and low PCE. − Apart from the replacement of lead, in recent years, some explorations to immobilize Pb and prevent them escaping from perovskite into the environment have been performed, through either polymer protection network building, metal-framework capture, or ion migration inhibition. − Particularly, inhibiting Pb ion migration by one-step introduction of an additive into a precursor to form a robust perovskite is a relatively facile and green method, compared to the in situ polymerization process of a gradient-annealing-dependent polymer network and multistep synthesis process of a heavy-metal-containing metal framework. , Various additives have been explored to inhibit Pb ion migration in perovskite .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite their promise, there still exist the toxicity issues associated with the Pb content of highperforming PSCs during a photovoltaic device's lifetime. 6 A direct strategy to avoid a potential threat to the environment is to completely replace the Pb counterpart in the perovskite crystal structure, but all currently used lead-free perovskites like tin-containing perovskite are facing intractable problems such as poor stability and low PCE. 7−9 Apart from the replacement of lead, in recent years, some explorations to immobilize Pb and prevent them escaping from perovskite into the environment have been performed, through either polymer protection network building, metal-framework capture, or ion migration inhibition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Full Life-Cycle Lead Management and Recycling Transparent Conductors for Low-Cost Perovskite Solar Cell

Deng

Sun

et al. 2022

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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Realizing a full life-cycle management for toxic lead (Pb) and reducing material/manufacture cost are the key steps in determining the commercialization process of perovskite photovoltaics. In this work, we develop full lifecycle material management for a carbon-based perovskite solar cell (C-PSC) to immobilize and recover Pb against environmental pollution, followed by refabrication of C-PSC based on recovered materials and recycled transparent conductors from obsolete devices. Pb immobilization is first achieved by a strong coordination interaction between undercoordinated Pb ions from perovskite and a C�O bond from green pseudohalide ions (pseudo-X), and the resulting C-PSC with the structure of ITO/SnO 2 /pseudo-Xperovskite/carbon yields an efficiency of 16.63%. Pb from an endof-life C-PSC is then recovered by dissolving the obsolete perovskite layer into DMF/DMSO precursor solvent, followed by replenishing a certain amount of MAI to guarantee new perovskite layer formation. The refabricated C-PSC based on recovered perovskite and a recycled transparent conductor displays comparable efficiency (15.30%) to that of C-PSC with commercial raw materials, also exceeding the previous efficiency record for C-PSCs based on recycled materials. Such refabricated C-PSC is relatively low-cost.

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“…Halide perovskite materials have promising performance characteristics for low-cost and efficient optoelectronic applications. − Especially perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have witnessed great achievements since they were first reported in 2009 . The certified power conversion efficiency (PCE) has surpassed 25.0%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Continuous Modification of Perovskite Film by a Eu Complex to Fabricate the Thermal and UV-Light-Stable Solar Cells

Feng

Tang

2022

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with simple and low-cost processability have shown promising photovoltaic performances. However, internal defects, external UV light, and heat sensitivity are principal obstacles on their way toward commercialization. Herein, we prepare an Eu complex and directly dope it into the perovskite precursor as a UV filter to decrease the photodegradation of PSCs. The formation of hydrogen bonds between the organic cation of perovskite and the −CF3 in the Eu complex could restrain the escape of organic cations under heating. The Eu complex acts as a redox shuttle to reduce metallic lead (Pb0) and iodine (I0) defects when the PSCs have a long-time operation. Additionally, the ligand-containing aromatic rings could reduce the trace amount of I0 existing as electronic defects in perovskites and together with the long alkyl chain retard the moisture immersion into the PSCs. The best efficiency of PSCs modified by the Eu complex improves up to 20.9%. The excellent thermal stability and UV-light resistance are also realized. This strategy provides a method to design a passivator which continuously modifies the imperfections and inhibits the chemical chain reactions in perovskite film, thereby enhancing the performance and stability of PSCs.

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Beyond efficiency fever: Preventing lead leakage for perovskite solar cells

Cited by 52 publications

References 118 publications

Ecotoxicity and Sustainability of Emerging Pb‐Based Photovoltaics

Ecotoxicity and Sustainability of Emerging Pb‐Based Photovoltaics

Full Life-Cycle Lead Management and Recycling Transparent Conductors for Low-Cost Perovskite Solar Cell

Continuous Modification of Perovskite Film by a Eu Complex to Fabricate the Thermal and UV-Light-Stable Solar Cells

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