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Preventing lead leakage in perovskite solar cells with a sustainable titanium dioxide sponge

Nature Sustainability volume 6, pages 974–983 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

As the market uptake of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is projected to grow rapidly, this clean energy technology will play an increasingly important role in reducing the global carbon footprint. However, one of the major barriers to its full commercialization is the presence of toxic lead (Pb), which enables the current record in photoconversion efficiency but risks being released into the environment when subjected to water or rain. Here we show that Pb leakage can be prevented by applying a transparent titanium dioxide (TiO2) sponge that allows for an efficient Pb sequestration of 58 ng cm−2 nm−1. Already an essential material for PSCs, the additional use of TiO2 through a scalable and solvent-free sputtering process promises extra cost benefits and higher sustainability. Further demonstration of the sponge application with desired thickness on ready-to-use devices, glass and polymeric foils enforces the practical value of the current approach. Our study provides a sustainable solution to one of the environmental and health risks of PSCs and would accelerate their practical applications.

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Fig. 1: Pb capture by TiO2 sponges integrated on PSCs.
Fig. 2: Pb capture by TiO2 sponges in aqueous solutions.
Fig. 3: Possible schemes for the TiO2 sponge integration.
Fig. 4: Mechanism of Pb capture by TiO2 sponges.
Fig. 5: DFT calculations of Pb adsorption on TiO2.

Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are available within this paper and the Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This activity was partially supported at National Research Council (CNR) by the national projects, BEYOND NANO Upgrade (Univocal Project Code (CUP) G66J17000350007) and VertiGrow (CUP B15F21004410005). This work has been partially funded by the European Union (NextGeneration EU), through the MUR-PNRR project SAMOTHRACE – Sicilian MicronanoTech Research and Innovation Center (ECS00000022, CUP B63C22000620005). This work was supported by a grant from the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) under project ID s963 and s1167. We thank T. Quinn for her kind proofreading work. We also thank V. Privitera (CNR-IMM) for supporting this research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CNR-IMM, Catania, Italy

    Salvatore Valastro, Emanuele Smecca, Giovanni Mannino, Corrado Bongiorno, Giuseppe Fisicaro, Valentina Arena, Carlo Spampinato, Ioannis Deretzis, Corrado Spinella, Antonino La Magna & Alessandra Alberti

  2. Department of Physics, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Stefan Goedecker

  3. Dipartimento Scienze Matematiche e Informatiche, Scienze Fisiche e Scienze della Terra, Università Degli Studi di Messina, Messina, Italy

    Carlo Spampinato, Enza Fazio & Fortunato Neri

  4. CNR-IPCB, Catania, Italy

    Sandro Dattilo, Andrea Scamporrino & Sabrina Carroccio

  5. CNR-NANOTEC, Lecce, Italy

    Francesco Bisconti & Aurora Rizzo

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  1. Salvatore Valastro
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Contributions

S.V. conceived the idea of the experiment, coordinated data analyses and cross-correlations and wrote the paper; E.S. and V.A performed X-ray reflectivity measurements; C.B. carried out STEM and energy dispersive X-ray analyses, under the supervision of C. Spinella; S.D., A.S. and S.C. conducted Pb sequestration measurements; F.B. and A.R. fabricated perovskite solar cells; G.M and C. Spampinato performed spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements; G.F., I.D. and S.G. carried out DFT calculations; E.F. and F.N. performed X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis; A.L.M. supervised the research. A.A. planned and coordinated the experiments, data analyses, collaborations and funding. All authors reviewed the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alessandra Alberti.

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: Nature Sustainability thanks Shangshang Chen and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–14, Tables 1–6 and Notes 1–6.

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Data

Data of forward-scan current density–voltage curve in Supplementary Fig. 1.

Supplementary Data

Data of photovoltaic parameters over time in Supplementary Fig. 2.

Supplementary Data

Data of transmittance vs photon energy in Supplementary Fig. 3.

Supplementary Data

Data of absorption coefficient and transmittance vs photon energy in Supplementary Fig. 7a,b.

Supplementary Data

Data of absorption coefficient vs photon energy in Supplementary Fig. 14.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

Data of reverse-scan current density–voltage curve in Fig. 1f.

Source Data Fig. 2

Data of Pb concentration vs time and Pb-adsorption capability vs TiO2 thickness in Fig. 2b,c.

Source Data Fig. 4

Data of energy dispersive X-ray graph in Fig. 4f.

Source Data Fig. 5

Data of Kohn–Sham total energy in Fig. 5e,f.

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Valastro, S., Smecca, E., Mannino, G. et al. Preventing lead leakage in perovskite solar cells with a sustainable titanium dioxide sponge. Nat Sustain 6, 974–983 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01120-w

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