Shedding light on the environmental impact of the decomposition of perovskite solar cell

Perovskite materials, as the heart of perovskite solar cells (PSC), attracted great interest in the photovoltaic community since the efficiency of PSC dramatically increased to over 25% in a short period. However, the presence of Pb metal in the perovskite crystalline limits the progress of this new generation of solar cells from environmental aspects. Here, we have systematically investigated the impact of the decomposition of perovskite material on the special plant, named Coleus. The influence of the decomposition of a perovskite solar cell (p-PbI₂) has a three-fold lower destruction than commercial PbI₂ (s-PbI₂) in the same condition. The p-PbI₂ made destroying the roots and leafs slower and smoother than s-PbI₂, which the amount of water absorption with the plant's root from p-PbI₂ is two-fold lower than s-PbI₂. The atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) indicated that the amount of Pb in the first week is about 3.2 and 2.1 ppm for s-PbI₂, and p-PbI₂, respectively, which in following for two next weeks reached to about relatively close together and finally in the last week decreased to 1.8 ppm for s-PbI₂ and increased to 2.4 ppm for p-PbI₂. This paper opens new avenues and challenges about the actual scenario on the impact of perovskite materials in PSCs on the plant and live metabolisms.