Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2024 Conference (MATSUS24)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsus.2024.441
Publication date: 18th December 2023
If Earth’s economical systems continue to rely on linearity, by 2060 we will need at least two planets to meet the current materials demand. This renders the circular design of new technologies a crucial strategy to achieve sustainable production and consumption, as required by the 12th Sustainable Development Goal of the Agenda 2030.
Within the photovoltaic field, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have become promising alternatives to more energy-demanding, mainstream technologies, due to their low levelized cost of electricity and carbon footprint.[1,2] With the aim of approaching circularity in the emerging photovoltaic industry, it is compelling to forsee a recycling strategy for PSCs.
In this work, we perform the recycling of all critical components of n-i-p PSCs, i.e. indium tin oxide/tin oxide (ITO/SnO2) substrate, lead iodide (PbI2) and N2,N2,N2′,N2′,N7,N7,N7′,N7′-octakis(4-methoxyphenyl)−9,9′-spirobi[9H-fluorene]−2,2′,7,7′-tetramine (SpiroOMeTAD). Our approach involves the sequential and selective dissolution of the hole-transporting material (SpiroOMeTAD) and active material (perovskite) with green solvents, such as ethyl acetate and distilled water. Then, the collected materials are purified: SpiroOMeTAD is washed and extracted with distilled water, while PbI2 is separated from the organic components of the perovskite and re-crystallized employing ethanol. Finally, the as-obtained SnO2/ITO substrates are cleaned with water, acetone and isopropyl alcohol and re-used, together with refurbished PbI2 and SpiroOMeTAD, to fabricate recycled PSCs. Since our aim is to establish a sustainable and circular method, we recover the employed solvents by distillation and we reuse them.
By analyzing the purity of recovered materials and by comparing the photovoltaic performances of PSCs fabricated with fresh and recycled materials, we demonstrate the efficacy of our recycling protocol.
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