journal article·2022-01-03Open access

Perovskite Quantum Dot Solar Cells Fabricated from Recycled Lead-Acid Battery Waste

Long Hu, Qingya Li, Yuchen Yao, Qiang Zeng, Zizhen Zhou, Claudio Cazorla, Tao Wan, Xinwei Guan, Jing-Kai Huang, Chun-Ho Lin, Mengyao Li, Soshan Cheong, Richard D. Tilley, Dewei Chu, Jianyu Yuan, Shujuan Huang, Tom Wu, Fangyang Liu

ACS Materials Letters· Volume 4· Issue 1

Abstract

A cost-effective and environmentally friendly Pb source is a prerequisite for achieving large-scale, low-cost perovskite photovoltaic devices. Currently, the commonly used method to prepare the lead source is based on a fire smelting process, requiring a high temperature of more than 1000 °C, which results in environmental pollution. Spent car lead acid batteries are an environmentally hazardous waste; however, they can alternatively serve as an abundant and inexpensive Pb source. Due to “self-purification”, quantum dots feature a high tolerance of impurities in the precursor since the impurities tend to be expelled from the small crystalline cores during colloidal nucleation. Herein, PbI2 recycled from spent lead acid batteries via a facile low-temperature solution process is used to synthesize CsPbI3 quantum dots, which simultaneously brings multiple benefits including (1) avoiding pollution originating from the fire smelting process; (2) recycling the Pb waste from batteries; and (3) synthesizing high-quality quantum dots. The resulting CsPbI3 quantum dots have photophysical properties such as PLQY and carrier lifetimes on par with those synthesized from the commercial PbI2 due to expelling of the impurity Na atoms. The resulting solar cells deliver comparable power conversion efficiencies: 14.0% for the cells fabricated using recycled PbI2 and 14.7% for the cells constructed using commercial PbI2. This work paves a new and feasible path to applying recycled Pb sources in perovskite photovoltaics.
Source: openalex_inverted_index · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Perovskite Materials and Applications · Conducting polymers and applications · Advanced battery technologies research

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

School of Engineering, Macquarie University Sustainable Energy Research Centre, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia

School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia

School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China

Yitai Technology Ltd., Changsha 410083, China

Departament de Física, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Campus Nord B4-B5, E-08034 Barcelona, Spain

Electron Microscope Unit, Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia

Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Joint International Research Laboratory of Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Soochow University, 199 Ren-Ai Road, Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China

Funding

State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs · Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China · Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China · Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province · Australian Research Council · Australian Renewable Energy Agency · National Natural Science Foundation of China · Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University

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