Selective dissolution of halide perovskites as a step towards recycling solar cells

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 11735
• Main Authors: Kim, Byeong Jo, Kim, Dong Hoe, Kwon, Seung Lee, Park, So Yeon, Li, Zhen, Zhu, Kai, Jung, Hyun Suk
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 23-05-2016; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/131; 140/146; 639/301/299/946; 639/301/930; Cadmium telluride; Competition; Electrodes; Glass substrates; Gold; Humanities and Social Sciences; MATERIALS SCIENCE; multidisciplinary; Payback periods; perovskite solar cells; Recycling; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); selective dissolution; SOLAR ENERGY; Solvents; United States > US
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11735

Most research on perovskite solar cells has focused on improving power-conversion efficiency and stability. However, if one could refurbish perovskite solar cells, their stability might not be a critical issue. From the perspective of cost effectiveness, if failed, perovskite solar cells could be collected and recycled; reuse of their gold electrodes and transparent conducting glasses could reduce the price per watt of perovskite photovoltaic modules. Herein, we present a simple and effective method for removing the perovskite layer and reusing the mesoporous TiO
2
-coated transparent conducting glass substrate via selective dissolution. We find that the perovskite layer can be easily decomposed in polar aprotic solvents because of the reaction between polar aprotic solvents and Pb
2+
cations. After 10 cycles of recycling, a mesoporous TiO
2
-coated transparent conducting glass substrate-based perovskite solar cell still shows a constant power-conversion efficiency, thereby demonstrating the possibility of recycling perovskite solar cells.
As perovskite-based solar cells are reaching high efficiency, issues of stability and end-of-life become predominant. Here, Kim
et al
. selectively dissolve the perovskite layer and reuse the electron transport layer to fabricate devices with efficiency and stability comparable to those of the original solar cells.