Linköping University researchers have developed a sustainable method to fully recycle perovskite solar cells using water instead of toxic solvents. The recycled cells retain their original efficiency, addressing both environmental and technological concerns.
A study published in Nature by researchers at Linköping University introduces a new method for recycling solar cells without using environmentally hazardous solvents. This process allows all components of a perovskite solar cell to be repeatedly recycled while maintaining the same efficiency as the original. Notably, water serves as the primary solvent in the recycling process.
As electricity demand rises—driven by AI advancements, the shift to electrified transportation, and other factors—sustainable energy sources must work together to prevent further climate change.
Solar energy has long been considered to have great potential and solar panels based on silicon have been on the market for over 30 years. But first-generation silicon solar panels are at the end of their life cycle, which has created an unexpected problem.
“There is currently no efficient technology to deal with the waste of silicon panels. That’s why old solar panels end up in the landfill. Huge mountains of electronic waste that you can’t do anything with,” says Xun Xiao, postdoc at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM) at Linköping University (LiU).
Feng Gao, professor of optoelectronics at the same department, adds: “We need to take recycling into consideration when developing emerging solar cell technologies. If we don’t know how to recycle them, maybe we shouldn’t put them on the market at all.”
Perovskite Solar Cells: The Future of Solar Energy?
One of the most promising technologies for next-generation solar cells involves perovskite. They are not only relatively inexpensive and easy to manufacture but also lightweight, flexible, and transparent. Thanks to these properties, perovskite solar cells can be placed on many different surfaces, even on windows. Also, they can convert up to 25 percent of the solar energy into electricity, which can be comparable to today’s silicon solar cells.
“There are many companies that want to get perovskite solar cells on the market right now, but we’d like to avoid another landfill. In this project, we’ve developed a method where all parts can be reused in a new perovskite solar cell without compromising performance in the new one,” says Niansheng Xu, postdoc at LiU.
However, given that perovskite solar cells currently have a shorter life span than silicon solar cells it is important that perovskite solar cell recycling is efficient and environmentally friendly. Perovskite solar cells also contain a small amount of lead that is necessary for high efficiency, but this also places great demands on a functioning recycling process.
In addition, there are also legal requirements in large parts of the world for producers to collect and recycle end-of-life solar cells in a sustainable way.
There are already methods for dismantling perovskite solar cells. This mostly involves using a substance called dimethylformamide, a common ingredient in paint solvents. It is toxic, environmentally hazardous, and potentially carcinogenic. What the Linköping researchers have now done is to instead develop a technology where water can be used as a solvent in dismantling the degraded perovskites. And more importantly, high-quality perovskites can be recycled from the water solution.
“We can recycle everything – covering glasses, electrodes, perovskite layers, and also the charge transport layer,” says Xun Xiao.
The next step for the researchers is to develop the method for larger-scale use in an industrial process. In the long term, they believe that perovskite solar cells can play an important role in providing the energy when surrounding infrastructure and supply chains are in place.
Reference: “Aqueous-based recycling of perovskite photovoltaics” by Xun Xiao, Niansheng Xu, Xueyu Tian, Tiankai Zhang, Bingzheng Wang, Xiaoming Wang, Yeming Xian, Chunyuan Lu, Xiangyu Ou, Yanfa Yan, Licheng Sun, Fengqi You and Feng Gao, 12 February 2025, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08408-7
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