{"id":300511,"date":"2021-07-15T18:04:35","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T15:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/removing-the-lead-hazard-from-perovskite-solar-cells\/"},"modified":"2021-07-15T18:04:35","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T15:04:35","slug":"removing-the-lead-hazard-from-perovskite-solar-cells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/removing-the-lead-hazard-from-perovskite-solar-cells\/","title":{"rendered":"#Removing the lead hazard from perovskite solar cells"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Removing the lead hazard from perovskite solar cells<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\n Credit: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
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Although they offer a very promising solution for capturing solar energy, perovskite solar cells contain lead, which is toxic to the environment and a serious health hazard. EPFL scientists have now found a very elegant and efficient solution to this, by adding a transparent phosphate salt that doesn’t interfere with light-conversion efficiency while preventing lead from seeping into the soil in cases of solar panel failure.<\/p>\n

“The solar-energy-to-electricity conversion of perovskite solar cells is unbelievably high, around 25%, which is now app<\/a>roaching the performance of the best silicon solar cells,” says Professor L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Forr\u00f3 at EPFL’s School of Basic Science<\/a>s. “But their central element is lead, which is a poison; if the solar panel fails, it can wash out into the soil, get into the food chain, and cause serious diseases.”<\/p>\n

The problem is that in most of the halide perovskites lead can dissolve in water. This water solubility and solubility in other solvents is actually a great advantage, as it makes building perovskite solar panels simpler and inexpensive\u2014another perk along with their performance. But the water solubility of lead can become a real environmental and health hazard when the panel breaks or gets wet.<\/p>\n

So the lead must be captured before it gets to the soil, and it must be possible to recycle when needed. This issue has drawn much and intensive research because it is the main obstacle for regulatory authorities approving the production of perovskite solar cells on a large, commercial scale. However, attempts to synthesize non-water-soluble and lead-free perovskites have yielded poor performance.<\/p>\n

Now, Forr\u00f3’s group has come up with solution which involves using a transparent phosphate salt, which does not block solar light, so it doesn’t affect performance. If the solar panel fails, the phosphate salt immedia<\/a>tely reacts with lead to produce a water-insoluble compound that cannot leach out to the soil, and which can be recycled. The work is published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces<\/i>.<\/p>\n

A transparent phosphate crystal, which incorporated into solar cells, can instantaneously immobilize the lead in case of failure and block its leaching out from the device. Credit: Endre Horv\u00e1th (EPFL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“A few years ago, we discovered that cheap and transparent phosphate salt crystals, like those in soil fertilizers, can be incorporated into various parts of the sandwich-like lead halide perovskite devices, like photodetectors, LEDs or solar cells,” says Endre Horv\u00e1th, the study’s first author. “These salts instantaneously react with lead ions in the presence of water, and precipitate them into extremely non-water-soluble lead phosphates.”<\/p>\n

“The ‘fail-safe’ chemistry keeps lead ions from leaching out and can render perovskite devices safer to use in the environment or close to humans,” says M\u00e1rton Koll\u00e1r, the chemist behind the growth of perovskite crystals.<\/p>\n

“We show that this approach can be used to build functional photodetectors, and we suggest that the broad community of researchers and R&D centers working on various devices like solar cells and light-emitting diodes implements it in their respective prototypes,” adds Pavao Andri\u010devic, who characterized the sensitive photodetectors.<\/p>\n

Forr\u00f3 concludes: “This is an extremely important study\u2014I would say, a central one\u2014for large-scale commercialization of perovskite-based solar cells.”\n <\/p>\n\n

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Crown ethers improve perovskite solar cell stability\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n More information:<\/strong>
\n Endre Horv\u00e1th et al, Fighting Health Hazards in Lead Halide Perovskite Optoelectronic Devices with Transparent Phosphate Salts, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces<\/i> (2021). DOI: 10.1021\/acsami.0c21137<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n
\n Provided by
\n Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Removing the lead hazard from perovskite solar cells (2021, July 15)
\n retrieved 16 July 2021
\n from https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news<\/a>\/2021-07-hazard-perovskite-solar-cells.html<\/p>\n

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