Professor Chung Hyun-suk Material Engineering, Development of Lead Waste Technology with Perovskite Solar Cell
- 공과대학
- Hit5159
- 2020-09-04
Professor Chung Hyun-suk's research team from the Department of New Material Engineering,
Development of Lead Waste Control Technology for Visibility into the Perovskite Solar Cell Market
- Providing technology for recycling lead waste discharged during the Perovskite solar cell production process
- Expect environmental alertness mitigation of perovskite lead waste
The research team led by Professor Chung Hyun-suk (Dr. Park So-yeon, the first author of the new material engineering department) announced that it has developed a technology for recycling ferrobskite solar cells, including lead waste control, in order to escape environmental regulations, which are the main obstacles to commercialization of ferrobscite solar cells, along with a joint research team led by Professor Kim Dong-hoi of Sejong University (Singer) and Professor Park Ji-sang of Kyungpook National University.
Perovskite solar cells have surpassed the limits of 25 percent efficiency of commercial thin film solar cells (multi-crystal silicon solar cells, CdTe, CIGS, etc.) and are believed to be at the forefront of next-generation solar cell research to be commercialized.
However, in order for perovskite solar cells to be used in the market, eco-friendly problems must be solved. This is because perovskite photosensor uses lead, a heavy metal substance, as its main ingredient. While studies have focused on finding materials that can replace lead to solve this problem, they have shown significantly lower efficiency than perovskite solar cells, including lead, and have failed to provide a fundamental solution.
In response, the researchers focused on the development of lead waste treatment and recycling processes that occur during the production process of ferrovskite solar cells and the recycling process of ferrovskite solar cells that have reached their end of life. In particular, lead wastes generated during the ferrovskite solar cell production process and recycling are mainly non-positive solvents, and lead ions in the solution have positive charges, and lead ions can be absorbed/removed through surface adsorption mechanisms, and hydroxyapatite, an eco-friendly material that has also been noted as an artificial bone material, was introduced as a lead absorbent.
To improve the lead ion adsorption characteristics and to ensure the ease of the lead component collection process, the researchers successfully synthesized a surface modified magnetic hydroxyapatite complex and achieved the efficiency of removing lead components from waste to a level that could satisfy the US Environmental Protection Agency lead standard (15 ppb or less).
Furthermore, the researchers succeeded in separating lead ions from lead ions and reproducing PbI2 at 99.97% yield using the fact that the solubility of PbI2 and pH, which are the main components of hydrofluorinated and ferrovskite production, are significantly different from those of PbI2, which are similar to commercial PbI2.
The research team's technology is indispensable in the commercialization of technology and research using harmful chemicals, and it is expected that it will not only contribute to the commercialization of ferrovskite solar cells, but also present new research directions for many technologies that have been found to have excellent performance but have not been commercialized due to environmental regulations.
This research was carried out with the support of the Future Challenge Technology Project of the Agency for Defense Development, Global Frontier Project, Natural Simulation Innovation Technology Development Project, Alkimist Project, and Basic Research Project of the Korea Research Foundation, and the results of the research were published 8.4(Tue) in the international journal Nature Sustainability.
※ Name of thesis: Sustainable lead management in halide perovskite solar cells