Cargando…
Investigating the Recycling Potential of Glass Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells—Melting Experiment
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 pro...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8587710/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34772147 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma14216622 |
_version_ | 1784598224748675072 |
---|---|
author | Schoden, Fabian Schnatmann, Anna Katharina Davies, Emma Diederich, Dirk Storck, Jan Lukas Knefelkamp, Dörthe Blachowicz, Tomasz Schwenzfeier-Hellkamp, Eva |
author_facet | Schoden, Fabian Schnatmann, Anna Katharina Davies, Emma Diederich, Dirk Storck, Jan Lukas Knefelkamp, Dörthe Blachowicz, Tomasz Schwenzfeier-Hellkamp, Eva |
author_sort | Schoden, Fabian |
collection | PubMed |
description | 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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8587710 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-85877102021-11-13 Investigating the Recycling Potential of Glass Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells—Melting Experiment Schoden, Fabian Schnatmann, Anna Katharina Davies, Emma Diederich, Dirk Storck, Jan Lukas Knefelkamp, Dörthe Blachowicz, Tomasz Schwenzfeier-Hellkamp, Eva Materials (Basel) Article 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. MDPI 2021-11-03 /pmc/articles/PMC8587710/ /pubmed/34772147 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma14216622 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Schoden, Fabian Schnatmann, Anna Katharina Davies, Emma Diederich, Dirk Storck, Jan Lukas Knefelkamp, Dörthe Blachowicz, Tomasz Schwenzfeier-Hellkamp, Eva Investigating the Recycling Potential of Glass Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells—Melting Experiment |
title | Investigating the Recycling Potential of Glass Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells—Melting Experiment |
title_full | Investigating the Recycling Potential of Glass Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells—Melting Experiment |
title_fullStr | Investigating the Recycling Potential of Glass Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells—Melting Experiment |
title_full_unstemmed | Investigating the Recycling Potential of Glass Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells—Melting Experiment |
title_short | Investigating the Recycling Potential of Glass Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells—Melting Experiment |
title_sort | investigating the recycling potential of glass based dye-sensitized solar cells—melting experiment |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8587710/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34772147 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma14216622 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT schodenfabian investigatingtherecyclingpotentialofglassbaseddyesensitizedsolarcellsmeltingexperiment AT schnatmannannakatharina investigatingtherecyclingpotentialofglassbaseddyesensitizedsolarcellsmeltingexperiment AT daviesemma investigatingtherecyclingpotentialofglassbaseddyesensitizedsolarcellsmeltingexperiment AT diederichdirk investigatingtherecyclingpotentialofglassbaseddyesensitizedsolarcellsmeltingexperiment AT storckjanlukas investigatingtherecyclingpotentialofglassbaseddyesensitizedsolarcellsmeltingexperiment AT knefelkampdorthe investigatingtherecyclingpotentialofglassbaseddyesensitizedsolarcellsmeltingexperiment AT blachowicztomasz investigatingtherecyclingpotentialofglassbaseddyesensitizedsolarcellsmeltingexperiment AT schwenzfeierhellkampeva investigatingtherecyclingpotentialofglassbaseddyesensitizedsolarcellsmeltingexperiment |