• Alberola-Borràs, Jaume-Adrià

Abstract

Perovskite solar cells have attracted enormous attention owing to their easy fabrication process and their high efficiencies at early stage of research. Solar cells with this inorganic-organic hybrid solar collector have experienced an efficiency increment from 3.8%, when they were discovered, to 20.1% in just 6 years.However, one of the main concerns of the perovskite solar cells is that the perovskite contains lead into its formula (CH3NH3PbX3, where X is a halide anion). Lead is a toxic substance whose use is restricted by the European Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive.Lead is responsible of environmental burdens during the materials manufacturing but also during cell disposal. The end of life stage of a product is one of the key issues of a perovskite solar cell as here is where most of the toxicity impact is generated, but life cycle assessments usually neglected it.This communication presents the life cycle assessment of a methylammonium lead trihalide perovskite solar cells focused on its end of life stage.The perovskite solar cell studied herein is a planar heterojunction configuration which is deposited onto a substrate of glass. The layers deposited onto the glass substrate are anode, n-type, solar harvester, p-type, and cathode. They are made of fluorine doped tin oxide, titanium dioxide, methylammonium lead triiodide, Spiro-MeOTAD, and silver, respectively.At lab scale, the life cycle assessment shows that human toxicity (Cancer) is mainly due to the disposal of the cathode and the anode layers. Meantime, the disposal of the perovskite layer has the lowest impact.

Topics

• perovskite
• impedance spectroscopy
• silver
• glass
• glass
• titanium
• toxicity
• tin