Recovery of lead from perovskite solar cells using ion-exchange resin

Abstract

Recent developments in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) yielded a power conversion efficiency of 26.56%, making them a practically viable technology. However, the end-of-life lead of (Pb)-based PSCs raises significant environmental concerns. In this study, we used ion-exchange resin to recover Pb from PSCs decomposed by immersion into chlorobenzene and N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solvents. We applied inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy to the as-prepared pollutants and successfully recovered 100% of Pb from the chlorobenzene and 99.57% from the DMF solution. This study highlights the potential for developing green disposal and recycling methods for emerging PSC technology.