Abstract
The effects of climate change are becoming increasingly clear, and the urgency of solving the energy and resource crisis has been recognized by politicians and society. One of the most important solutions is sustainable energy technologies. The problem with the state of the art, however, is that production is energy-intensive and non-recyclable waste remains after the useful life. For monocrystalline photovoltaics, for example, there are recycling processes for glass and aluminum, but these must rather be described as downcycling. The semiconductor material is not recycled at all. Another promising technology for sustainable energy generation is dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Although efficiency and long-term stability still need to be improved, the technology has high potential to complement the state of the art. DSSCs have comparatively low production costs and can be manufactured without toxic components. In this work, we present the world’ s first experiment to test the recycling potential of non-toxic glass-based DSSCs in a melting test. The glass constituents were analyzed by optical emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ICP-OES), and the surface was examined by scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX). The glass was melted in a furnace and compared to a standard glass recycling process. The results show that the described DSSCs are suitable for glass recycling and thus can potentially circulate in a circular economy without a downcycling process. However, material properties such as chemical resistance, transparency or viscosity are not investigated in this work and need further research.
Highlights
An important pillar against climate change is the transformation of the energy sector to 100% renewable energy [1]
One technology that has great potential in this area is dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) [7]. They can be made from non-toxic material, and the production process is less energy-consuming compared to silicon-based photovoltaics (c-Si PV) [8,9,10,11]
To improve energy conversion and reduce cost, quantum dots are used to fabricate quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSC) [37]. These QDSCs could potentially be subjected to a similar recycling process as glass-based DSSCs
Summary
An important pillar against climate change is the transformation of the energy sector to 100% renewable energy [1]. One technology that has great potential in this area is dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) [7] They can be made from non-toxic material, and the production process is less energy-consuming compared to silicon-based photovoltaics (c-Si PV) [8,9,10,11]. To improve energy conversion and reduce cost, quantum dots are used to fabricate quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSC) [37] These QDSCs could potentially be subjected to a similar recycling process as glass-based DSSCs. the basic elements of the quantum dots are cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) or other heavy metal compounds, which are themselves toxic [38,39]. This eliminates the need for complicated separation processes for toxic elements in material loops [3,4]
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