Electrochemical recycling of lead from hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites using deep eutectic solvents

Abstract

The emerging field of lead-based hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite (HOIP) photovoltaic devices has attracted a great deal of attention due to their very high conversion efficiencies and straightforward fabrication methods. Unfortunately, a major obstacle to commercialization remains the high toxicity of lead. Whilst to date the focus has been on understanding and improving device performance, there has been no reported effort to develop methods to recover and recycle the lead from these materials. In this work we demonstrate a simple, low-cost and environmentally friendly method of recycling lead from HOIP photovoltaics by dissolution and selective electrodeposition using a deep eutectic solvent. We demonstrate that up to 99.8% of the lead is removed from the solvent. The results presented here provide a viable solution to lead-based HOIP photovoltaic recycling, and also open the possibility for providing an alternative method to conventional smelting in the recovery and recycling of different lead-based energy materials.