Authors
Pivini Gunasekara, Minh Tam Hoang, Saveen Senanayeke, Yang Yang, Prashant Sonar, Anthony P O'Mullane, Hongxia Wang
Published in
ChemSusChem. Volume 19. Issue 15. Pages e70929. Aug 14, 2026.
Abstract
Recycling materials from end-of-use metal halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is essential for reducing environmental risks and improving the sustainability of this emerging photovoltaic technology, with lead iodide (PbI2) being a target due to its toxicity and material value. However, the performance of PSCs is known to be highly sensitive to the purity of precursor materials including PbI2. In this study, a simple water-based recycling and recrystallization method was developed to recover PbI2 from spent PSCs. Characterizations have shown that the recycled-PbI2 was comparable to high-purity (99.99%)PbI2. The perovskite (MAPbI3) film made from the recycled-PbI2 or lower purity (99%)PbI2 shows smaller grains, which are undesirable for their applications in solar cells. It is found that treatment of the recycled PbI2-based perovskite film with guanidinium thiocyanate (GuaSCN) can significantly enhance morphology and properties of the perovskite film with larger grains (∼700 nm), reduced trap-assisted recombination. PSCs with champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.25% were obtained, which well surpassed the performance of the PSCs made from commercial 99%PbI2 (PCE 11.68%). This work shows the potential of reclaiming PbI2 from decommissioned, decomposed perovskite materials, and even purifying the contaminated PSCs in a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly manner, generating commercial and environmental benefits.
PMID:
42546074
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 04 Aug 2026.
Read full publication at:
Please sign in
to see all details.
Advertisement
Stats
- Recommendations n/a n/a positive of 0 vote(s)
- Views 1
- Comments 0