Recycling and recovery of perovskite solar cells

Abstract: Over the past decade, lead halide perovskite materials have emerged as a promising candidate for third-generation solar cells and have progressed extremely rapidly. The tunable band gap, strong absorption, high power conversion efficiency, and low cost of perovskite solar cells makes them highly competitive compared to current commercialized silicon-based and thin film-based photovoltaic technologies. However, commercial products unavoidably result in large amounts of waste and end-of-life devices which can cause serious environmental impacts. To address this issue, recycle and recovery technologies of perovskite solar cells should be researched and developed proactively. In this review, the development of perovskite solar cells and their necessary materials are first introduced. Subsequently, the potential environmental impacts of perovskite solar cells are discussed, including their stability and lifetime, use of critical materials (i.e., indium, tin, and lead), and toxicity. Accordingly, the present recycle and recovery technologies are reviewed, providing information and recommendations of key strategies for recycling and recovering. Finally, future works and strategies for recycling and recovering perovskite solar cells are proposed.