Perovskite solar cells (PSCs), as an emerging renewable energy technology, are expected to play an important role in achieving the "dual carbon" goal. However, as lead is still the main component in the preparation of high-performance PSCs, the lead toxicity of PSCs remains the main factor hindering their commercialization and affecting their sustainability.
Especially when PSCs are damaged under extreme weather conditions, soluble lead in halide perovskite is easily exposed to water, which can cause neurotoxicity and accumulate in organisms, and have adverse effects on their reproduction. This will cast a shadow on the practical application and long-term prospects of PSCs.
Built in HP β The strong chemical coordination and multi dentate chelation between the CD BTCA complex and Pb2+ions can greatly inhibit lead leakage in severely damaged PSCs, thereby reducing lead toxicity. After 522 hours of dynamic water flushing, the damaged device maintained an initial efficiency of 97%, with only<14 ppb of pollution in the water, which meets the standards of the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Toxicity assessment experiments have shown that the built-in HP β The CD-BTCA supramolecular complex is beneficial for reducing lead toxicity in lead containing PSCs and has almost no impact on the reproduction of organisms.
It can be seen that this work provides a novel and sustainable method to achieve durable, repeatable, environmentally friendly, and biosafety perovskite photovoltaic devices in a low-cost manner, and can bring PSCs closer to commercial implementation.
In terms of inhibiting lead leakage, reducing biological toxicity, and achieving closed-loop recovery and management of Pb, this work has solved one of the most urgent problems in the commercialization of perovskite solar cells, which is of great value to the perovskite photovoltaic field.
In the research, the long-term operation and hydrothermal stability of the devices have been resolved, which has to some extent promoted the commercialization process of PSCs. In addition, the stability of the device is improved, and lead leakage and toxicity are reduced, which is beneficial for the underwater application of perovskite photovoltaic devices, such as the power supply of intelligent unmanned diving detectors, deep-sea submersibles, and other equipment.
It is understood that perovskite photovoltaic devices are in a golden period of development and commercial exploration. How to suppress lead leakage and reduce the impact of lead toxicity on the environment and organisms is an urgent and important challenge to be solved.
Previously, the academic community had developed several methods to alleviate lead leakage in extreme weather conditions, such as physical encapsulation or chemical absorption. Despite the excellent lead adsorption effect on devices, current attempts still require additional processes and complex modifications to prepare lead absorbing films, which will complicate the device manufacturing process and may limit device performance and scalability.
In addition, due to the cleaning process, or long-term exposure to rainwater containing various metal ions and ultraviolet radiation, the lead absorption layer will gradually saturate or lose its function.
By adding lead absorption materials or brackets within the perovskite layer, a built-in strategy can quickly and effectively capture lead ions during perovskite decomposition, thereby further reducing lead leakage. This can serve as a supplement to the lead absorption method for external packaging of devices.
However, increasing the thickness or content of the embedded lead absorption network can to some extent damage the device efficiency. The currently reported strategies for preventing lead leakage only focus on physical or chemical capture of lead in the leakage, but the adsorbed products still need to face secondary lead pollution. Therefore, further consideration is needed for the recovery and management of lead.
This study found that the built-in HP β CD-BTCA supramolecular complex and flexible HP outside the device β The combination of CD-BTCA film packaging can effectively reduce Pb leakage to a negligible level, while improving the durability and mechanical impact resistance of PSCs under extreme weather conditions.
Low cost cyclodextrins and their derivatives have good biocompatibility and have been proven to be effective adsorbents for rapid removal of heavy metals. BTCA composed of four carboxyl groups can also provide many adsorption sites for Pb2+.
In addition, HP β The crosslinking of CD and BTCA can inhibit the intermolecular aggregation of additives, exposing most of the active functional groups, thereby maximizing the material's Pb absorption ability. More importantly, HP β The chelation between CD BTCA complex and Pb can effectively reduce the toxicity of Pb, making Pb based perovskite films and solar cells environmentally friendly and biosafety to organisms.
Recycling Pb from scrapped PSCs can be reused, making it not only efficient for device preparation, but also highly cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
In summary, researchers have developed a versatile strategy for embedding cross-linked supramolecular complexes into perovskite thin films, while improving device performance and stability, preventing lead leakage, reducing lead toxicity, and opening up a new path for sustainable PSCs, driving the commercialization process of PSCs.
As an emerging renewable energy technology, halide perovskite solar cells are considered one of the most promising next-generation thin film photovoltaic technologies due to their low cost, high efficiency, and solution processability.
However, whether bottleneck issues such as device stability, lead leakage, lead toxicity, lead recovery and management can be resolved is a key issue for the commercialization of perovskite. The water-soluble lead in perovskite has high toxicity, and potential lead leakage remains the biggest obstacle to the commercial application of this technology. Therefore, further research on lead containing single junction and multi junction perovskite solar cells with different components is of great significance for the large-scale implementation of this promising technology.
Currently, perovskite batteries are in the formation stage of the industry, and as one of the cutting-edge solar cell technologies, perovskite is attracting a large number of companies to invest huge amounts of funds. Perovskite solar cells have the advantages and characteristics of strong light absorption ability, low cost, high efficiency, easy preparation, and high low light efficiency.
In recent years, perovskite solar cells have developed rapidly, with a certification efficiency of 26.1%, demonstrating potential industrial application prospects.
It can be said that perovskite batteries have reached a critical point in commercialization. At present, the development trend of perovskite technology and the evolution of preparation processes have effectively solved many bottleneck issues such as large area, stability, lead leakage, etc. It is believed that perovskite batteries will show great potential in sustainable power supply in the near future.