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Assessing health and environmental impacts of solvents for producing perovskite solar cells

Nature Sustainability volume 4, pages 277–285 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Halide perovskites are poised as a game-changing semiconductor system with diverse applications in optoelectronics. Industrial entities aim to commercialize perovskite technologies because of high performance but also because this type of semiconductor can be processed from solution, a feature enabling low cost and fast production. Here, we analyse the health and environmental impacts of eight solvents commonly used in perovskite processing. We consider first- and higher-order ramifications of each solvent on an industrial scale such as solvent production, use/removal, emissions and potential end-of-life treatments. Further, we consider the energy of evaporation for each solvent, air emission, condensation and subsequent incineration, reuse or distillation for solvent recycling, and apply a full end-of-life analysis. For human health impact, we use the ‘USEtox’ method but also consider toxicity data beyond carcinogenic classifications. We find that dimethyl sulfoxide has the lowest total impact, by being the most environmentally friendly and least deleterious to human health of the solvents considered. The analysis of the effects of these solvents on human health and the environment provides guidance for sustainable development of this new technology.

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Fig. 1: LCA system boundary schematic showing possible pathways for production of perovskite PVs.
Fig. 2: Human health characterization factors expressed in DALYs per kg of substance emitted for the scenario of emission to urban air.
Fig. 3: Life cycle assessment of eight aprotic solvents for perovskite film manufacturing with four potential scenarios for EOL.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the first author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from Generalitat Valenciana (Spain) under Project Q-Devices PROMETEO/2018/098. R.V. was partially supported by an International Academic Fellowship from Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Spain) and reference PRX19/00378, which permitted a research visit to the National Renewable Laboratory of Energy (NREL). This work was authored in part by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy for the US Department of Energy (DOE) under contract no. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding for work at NREL was provided by DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office under the De-risking Halide Perovskite Solar Cells Program and based upon work under agreement no. DE-EE0008174. T.H.S. acknowledges the Department of Chemistry and the Office of Graduate Studies at the Colorado School of Mines for financial support. We thank B. Kazaishvili for assistance with graphics and R. Kerner for helpful discussions. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the US government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Construction, GID, Universitat Jaume I, Castelló, Spain

    Rosario Vidal, Jaume-Adrià Alberola-Borràs & Joaquín-Luis Gimeno-Molina

  2. Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM), Universitat Jaume I, Castelló, Spain

    Jaume-Adrià Alberola-Borràs & Iván Mora-Seró

  3. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA

    Severin N. Habisreutinger, David T. Moore, Tracy H. Schloemer, Joseph J. Berry & Joseph M. Luther

  4. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA

    Tracy H. Schloemer

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  1. Rosario Vidal
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Contributions

R.V., J.J.B. and J.M.L. designed the study. R.V. and J.M.L. wrote the manuscript. R.V. performed the analysis. J.A.A.B. modelled DMPU and DMI reaction synthesis. J.L.G.M. assembled life cycle inventories. D.T.M. reviewed solvent removal. J.M.L., D.T.M. and T.H.S. determined solvent selection. I.M.-S. and S.N.H. assisted in the work analysis.

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Correspondence to Rosario Vidal or Joseph M. Luther.

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Peer review information Nature Sustainability thanks Youn-Joo An, Nam-Gyu Park and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Notes 1–12, Tables 1–25, Figs. 1–4, Schemes 1,2 and refs. 1–102.

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Vidal, R., Alberola-Borràs, JA., Habisreutinger, S.N. et al. Assessing health and environmental impacts of solvents for producing perovskite solar cells. Nat Sustain 4, 277–285 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00645-8

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