PbI2 Refinement from Lead-Acid Battery as Potential Precursor for Hybrid Lead Halide Perovskite Solar Cells

M. BERRUET; M. CÓRDOBA; K. TARETTO; E. L. SPERA; C. J. PEREYRA; R. E. MAROTTI; D. L. GAU; A.V. MONTI

Mar del Plata

Congreso; 34th Topical Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry; 2023

International Society of Electrochemistry

Large amounts of waste lead-acid batteries are generated every year, and battery waste is seriously polluting the environment and is harmful to human health. An Argentine company dedicated to the manufacture of batteries, manages the hazardous waste cycle by applying a circular economy through the recycling of used batteries [1] and generating new added value products. For this work, PbI2 precursor from disused Pb-acid batteries was produced with the aim of studying potential use in hybrid lead halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) following a procedure according to [2]. On the other hand, the traditional hybrid lead halide perovskite absorption material of CH3NH3PbI3 is mainly synthesized by the reaction of lead compound PbI2 and Methylammonium iodide (CH3NH3I). A compact and dense perovskite layer is critical for high performance PSCs devices and one strategy for reducing carrier recombination losses is to minimize defects on polycrystalline perovskite films. Evidenceof low quality of raw materials can be seen in Figure 1. Impurities and/or defect-stoichiometric can lead recombination centers in the bulk and in the interface with charge collector. For that reason, it is mandatory to improve the quality of precursor from low-grade source to produce efficient PSCs. In this work we adopted a method to eliminate impurities and refine the as received PbI2 precursor based on re-crystallization [3]. Thin films of CH3NH3PbI3 were deposited by spin-coating method following theone-step route in a N2-filled glovebox. Structural, optical and opto-electrical characterizations of the PbI2 precursor at different stage of refinement, thin films of perovskite and PSCs devices were performed, respectively. Commercially available PbI2 was used as reference.