Conducting glasses recovered from thin film transistor liquid crystal display wastes for dye-sensitized solar cell cathodes

Abstract

Transparent conductive glasses such as thin film transistor (TFT) array and colour filter glasses were recovered from the TFT-liquid crystal display panel wastes by dismantling and sonic cleaning. Noble metals (i.e. platinum (Pt)) and indium tin oxide (ITO) are generally used in the cathode of a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). To reduce the DSSC cost, Pt was replaced with nano nickel-encapsulated carbon-shell (Ni@C) nanoparticles, which were prepared by carbonization of Ni²⁺-β-cyclodextrin at 673 K for 2 h. The recovered conductive glasses were used in the DSSC electrodes in the substitution of relatively expensive ITO. Interestingly, the efficiency of the DSSC having the Ni@C-coated cathode is as high as 2.54%. Moreover, the cost of the DSSC using the recovered materials can be reduced by at least 24%.

Assessment and Exploitation of the Inherent Value of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) for Circular Economy

“…An alternative strategy to substitution for mitigating resource criticality issues is to decouple supply from primary production by developing secondary supplies from within the circular economy, including supplies from EoL devices and cascaded materials derived from wastes available within the circular economy (industrial symbiosis). Examples of lab scale processes for production of 3GPV materials from waste include the production of perovskites from Pbacid car batteries, 237 production of carbon based counter electrodes from batteries, 293 use of conductive glass from LCD screens as DSSC counter electrodes, 294,295 and the generation of platinized counter electrodes for DSSCs from waste thermocouples described in the previous chapter. 230 The use of WEEE as a raw material may lead to significant materials costs savings and even additional revenue for PV manufacturers.…”