The critical issue of using lead for sustainable massive production of perovskite solar cells: a review of relevant literature

This work aims to review the most significant studies dealing with the environmental issues of the use of lead in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). A careful discussion and rationalization of the environmental and human health toxicity impacts, evaluated by life cycle assessment and risk assessment studies, is presented. The results of this analysis are prospectively related to the possible future massive production of PSC technology.

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The use of the risk assessment in the life cycle assessment framework

Management of Environmental Quality An International Journal ◽

10.1108/meq-03-2014-0045 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 389-406 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Maria Francesca Milazzo ◽

Francesco Spina

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Human Health ◽

Biodiesel Production ◽

Health Impacts ◽

Complete Analysis ◽

Transfer Factors ◽

Content Type ◽

Human Health Impacts

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to quantify the human health impacts of soy-biodiesel production with the aim to discuss about its environmental sustainability. Design/methodology/approach – The integrated use of two current approaches, risk assessment (RA) and life cycle assessment (LCA), has allowed improvement of the potentialities of both in obtaining a more complete analysis. The implementation of a life cycle indicator for the assessment of the impacts on the human health, integrating the features of both approaches, is the main focus of this paper. Findings – It has been found that, although the biodiesel is a green fuel, it has some criticalities in its life cycle, which cannot be disregarded. In fact, even if biodiesel is essentially a clean fuel there are some phases, prior to the industrial phase, that can cause negative effects on human health and ecosystems. Practical implications – Results suggest some measures which can be adopted to substantially reduce human health impacts. Further alternative could be analysed in future to gain more insight about the use of biodiesel fuels. Originality/value – The estimation of the impacts of a process producing biodiesel has been made by using a novel approach. The novelty is associated with the calculation of the impacts on human health by using the transfer factors applied in RA. The use of such factors, properly modified in order to estimate the impacts on a wider scale than a site-dimension, allows defining a holistic approach, as LCA and RA are used as complete units but at the same time can be related to each other.

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Life cycle assessment of high-performance monocrystalline titanium dioxide nanorod-based perovskite solar cells

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells ◽

10.1016/j.solmat.2021.111288 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 230 ◽

pp. 111288

Author(s):

Harshadeep Kukkikatte Ramamurthy Rao ◽

Eskinder Gemechu ◽

Ujwal Thakur ◽

Karthik Shankar ◽

Amit Kumar

Keyword(s):

Titanium Dioxide ◽

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Solar Cells ◽

Life Cycle ◽

High Performance ◽

Perovskite Solar Cells

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Cradle-to-Grave Life Cycle Assessment of Solid-State Perovskite Solar Cells

Volume 4: Bio and Sustainable Manufacturing ◽

10.1115/msec2017-2970 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jingyi Zhang ◽

Xianfeng Gao ◽

Yelin Deng ◽

Yuanchun Zha ◽

Chris Yuan

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Solar Cells ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Solar Cell ◽

Perovskite Solar Cells ◽

Dye Sensitized Solar Cells ◽

Perovskite Solar Cell ◽

Primary Data ◽

Promising Alternative ◽

Whole Life Cycle

With the advantages of low cost and high conversion efficiency, perovskite solar cell attracts enormous attention in recent years for research and development. However, the toxicity potential of lead used in perovskite solar cell manufacturing causes grave concern for its environmental performance. To understand and facilitate the sustainable development of perovskite solar cell, a comprehensive life cycle assessment has been conducted by using attributional life cycle assessment approach from cradle to grave, with manufacturing data from our lab experiments and literature. The results indicate that the major environmental problem is associated with system manufacturing, including gold cathode, organic solvent usage and recycling, and electricity utilization in component manufacturing process. Lead only contributes less than 1% of human toxicity and ecotoxicity potentials in the whole life cycle, which can be explained by the small amount usage of lead in perovskite dye preparation. More importantly, the uncertainties caused by life cycle inventory have been investigated in this study to show the importance of primary data source. In addition, a comparison of perovskite solar cell with conventional solar cells and other dye sensitized solar cells shows that perovskite solar cell could be a promising alternative technology for future clean power generations.

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