Abstract
New generation photovoltaic devices have attracted much attention in the last decades since they can be efficiently manufactured employing abundant raw materials and with less-energy intensive processes. In this context, the use of powerful environmental assessment is pivotal to support the fine-tuning of solar cells fabrication and hit the target of manufacturing effective sustainable technological devices. In this work, a mass-based green metrics and life cycle assessment combined approach is applied to analyze the environmental performances of an innovative synthetic protocol for the preparation of organic dye TTZ5, which has been successfully proposed as sensitizer for manufacturing dye sensitized solar cells. The new synthetic strategy, which is based on the C-H activation process, has been compared with the previously reported synthesis employing classic Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling chemistry. Results highlight the contribution of direct energy consumption and purification operations in organic syntheses at lab scale. Furthermore, they demonstrate the usefulness of the environmental multifaceted analytic tool and the power of life cycle assessment to overcome the intrinsic less comprehensive nature of green metrics for the evaluation of organic synthetic protocols.
Highlights
In order to match the target of the EU Renewable Energy Directive (EU, 2018) and the Circular Economy Action Plan (EC COM, 2019; 190 final, 2019), the research and development activity on photovoltaics (PV) should cope in looking for more eco-friendly manufacturing solutions
Kearney Energy Transition Institute, 2017), Combined life cycle assessment (LCA) and Green-Metrics Approach thanks to a lively and very productive research activity developed at lab scale (Polman et al, 2016; Luceño-Sánchez et al, 2019)
TTZ5 is suitable for application in transparent and opaque thin-layer cells (Dessì et al, 2014), which are a common choice for the application in Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) systems
Summary
In order to match the target of the EU Renewable Energy Directive (EU, 2018) and the Circular Economy Action Plan (EC COM, 2019; 190 final, 2019), the research and development activity on photovoltaics (PV) should cope in looking for more eco-friendly manufacturing solutions. In such a way it is possible to take in consideration relevant information such as resource efficiency and energy requirements together with all of the possible hotspots associated to the investigated systems. Compound TTZ5, bearing a thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazole (TzTz) ring as its central unit, has been successfully employed as a sensitizer for the preparation of photocatalysts for hydrogen production (Dessì et al, 2018) and the manufacturing of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) (Dessì et al, 2014, 2015) This innovative photovoltaic technology dates back to 1991 and was proposed as a more versatile and cheaper alternative to silicon based photovoltaic (PV) devices. TTZ5 is suitable for application in transparent and opaque thin-layer cells (Dessì et al, 2014), which are a common choice for the application in Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) systems
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