Recycling Perovskite Solar Cells To Avoid Lead Waste.

Methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) perovskite based solar cells have recently emerged as a serious competitor for large scale and low-cost photovoltaic technologies. However, since these solar cells contain toxic lead, a sustainable procedure for handling the cells after their operational lifetime is required to prevent exposure of the environment to lead and to comply with international electronic waste disposal regulations. Herein, we report a procedure to remove every layer of the solar cells separately, which gives the possibility to selectively isolate the different materials.

Control of Perovskite Crystal Growth by Methylammonium Lead Chloride Templating.

State-of-the-art solar cells based on methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3 ) now reach efficiencies over 20 %. This fast improvement was possible with intensive research in perovskite processing. In particular, chloride-based precursors are known to have a positive influence on the crystallization of the perovskite.

Efficient Planar Heterojunction Perovskite Solar Cells Based on Formamidinium Lead Bromide.

The development of medium-bandgap solar cell absorber materials is of interest for the design of devices such as tandem solar cells and building-integrated photovoltaics. The recently developed perovskite solar cells can be suitable candidates for these applications. At present, wide bandgap alkylammonium lead bromide perovskite absorbers require a high-temperature sintered mesoporous TiO2 photoanode in order to function efficiently, which makes them unsuitable for some of the above applications.

Stabilization of the Trigonal High-Temperature Phase of Formamidinium Lead Iodide.

Formamidinium lead iodide (FAPbI3) has the potential to achieve higher performance than established perovskite solar cells like methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3), while maintaining a higher stability. The major drawback for the latter material is that it can crystallize at room temperature in a wide bandgap hexagonal symmetry (P63mc) instead of the desired trigonal (P3m1) black phase formed at a higher temperature (130 °C). Our results show that employing a mixture of MAI and FAI in films deposited via a two-step approach, where the MAI content is <20%, results in the exchange of FA molecules with MA without any significant lattice shrinkage.