Scientists map thousands of lead-free solar materials to replace toxic perovskites
Researchers have catalogued lead-free alternatives to the high-performing but toxic perovskites currently used in solar cells, identifying thousands of candidate compounds. The work could unlock a path to scaling up perovskite solar technology without environmental or health risks—a key bottleneck for commercialization.
Originaltitel: Mapping Uncharted Lead-Free Halide Perovskites and Related Low-Dimensional Structures
<p>Research on perovskites has grown exponentially in the past decade due to the potential of methyl ammonium lead iodide in photovoltaics. Although these devices have achieved remarkable and competitive power conversion efficiency, concerns have been raised regarding the toxicity of lead and its impact on scaling up the technology. Eliminating lead while conserving the performance of photovoltaic devices is a great challenge. To achieve this goal, the research has been expanded to thousands of compounds with similar or loosely related crystal structures and compositions. Some materials are "re-discovered", and some are yet unexplored, but predictions suggest that their potential applications may go beyond photovoltaics, for example, spintronics, photodetection, photocatalysis, and many other areas. This short review aims to present the classification, some current mapping strategies, and advances of lead-free halide double perovskites, their derivatives, lead-free perovskitoid, and low-dimensional related crystals.</p>