Revive or reuse: Environmental and energy insights into mesoporous perovskite solar cells recycling
: Jech, Šimon; Hadadian, Mahboubeh; Miettunen, Kati; Santasalo-Aarnio, Annukka
Publisher: Elsevier
: 2026
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells
: 114315
: 302
: 0927-0248
: 1879-3398
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2026.114315
: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2026.114315
: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/523240152
With growing interest in perovskite solar cells, identifying the optimal recycling strategy becomes important. Strategies focusing on revival or layer-reuse were introduced. Yet their energy footprints and environmental impacts should be understood. Thus, revival – the highest level of recycling – and layer-reuse of carbon-based mesoporous perovskite solar cells were modelled alongside the revival of NiO- and Au-NiO-based cells. Subsequent analysis focused on energy return on energy investment combined with life cycle assessment investigating systems from cradle to end of second-life (second-life after recycling). The results showed that revival had higher return of energy (43) while having lower impacts (as low as 8 g CO2-eq./kWh) compared to reuse of ZrO2 electrode (as low as 8.8 g CO2-eq./kWh). However, the degradation and lifetime of second-life devices might render layer-reuse more advantageous, highlighting the small nuances between different recycling levels. Additionally, the environmental impacts of nickel-based cells were significantly higher compared to carbon-based cells. Based on these findings future perovskite solar cell research could target effective revival or reuse.
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The work was funded by Research Council of Finland project ECOSOL (numbers 347275 and 347276). SJ thanks the Aalto University School of Engineering for supporting this research. MH also thanks PROFI7/SUSMAT funded by Research Council of Finland.