Relative impacts of methylammonium lead triiodide perovskite solar cells based on life cycle assessment

Abstract

The environmental performance of four different device assembly procedures based on hybrid halide perovskite solar cell (PSC) were assessed from cradle to grave using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. In addition, a new environmental indicator was defined to measure the time evolution of an impact category, specifically in this case, human toxicity cancer payback time. PSCs procedures accounted for the probably three more used basic recipes for laboratory perovskite deposition: 1) spin coating of stoichiometric precursor solution, 2) spin coating of precursor solution using lead chloride precursor and 3) the two step deposition method. Also, the two most widely used substrate configurations (planar and mesoporous substrate) were considered. LCA included three realistic scenarios for the end of life: 1) residual landfill, 2) reuse and residual landfill and 3) reuse and recycling. The remaining variable parameters to assemble the device were fixed in common for all four devices, which were the major responsible of the whole PSC impact. Lead of PSCs had no significant contribution in environmental impacts. Beyond shared procedure steps, impacts generated by the twostep method and the use of mesostructured type substrate were higher. End of life scenario with reuse and recycling improved the toxicity impact categories.

The balance between efficiency, stability and environmental impacts in perovskite solar cells: a review

“…A detailed LCA study of the variation of impacts upon using different cations and multiple cation/anion perovskites by combining not only methylammonium (MA) and formamidinium (FA), but also the Cs cation and I and Br, indicated the higher impacts of using FA and the recommendation to avoid chlorobencene as solvent. In the end, multiple cations will need longer lifetimes to compete with the standard MA approach [129,130].…”

Analysis of the UV–Ozone‐Treated SnO2 Electron Transporting Layer in Planar Perovskite Solar Cells for High Performance and Reduced Hysteresis

“…Furthermore, for fabrication of SnO 2 ETLs a low temperature process is especially favorable, due to its degradation tendency at high temperature, with the advantages of low cost, easy preparation, and outstanding performance in PSCs . Moreover, SnO 2 shows an excellent optical transparency in the visible range, better electric properties, band alignment to perovskite, and stability, making it a promising candidate for commercialization of perovskite photovoltaic technology, in a planar configuration that presents significant advantages in terms of cost and environmental impacts with respect to the mesoporous configuration …”

Evaluation of multiple cation/anion perovskite solar cells through life cycle assessment

“…37,38 A detailed effect of these other parts of the cell can be found in our previous LCA study. 31 The corresponding efficiencies and lifetimes of the PSCs (Table 1) made of the five combinations of perovskite were extracted from the works in which their syntheses are reported.…”

“…30 Furthermore, the four most common methods to produce PSCs were environmentally revised by us. 31 This study also assessed a PSCs regeneration method previously proposed 32,33 applied to the four production methods considered. The aim of this work is to evaluate the ongoing trend of compositional engineering in PSCs through LCA from cradle to gate.…”

“…On the other hand, the energy consumption for the synthesis of canonical perovskite was taken from our previous study, based also in the direct measurement. 31 In the section 2.2 of the supplementary information, an update of the characterisation factor of Cs for abiotic depletion potential category from literature of 2002 with another estimated from data of 2017 is developed. Furthermore, the usage of materials for the synthesis of the multiple cation/anion perovskite is analysed to find the responsible compounds of the four compositions impact.…”