Closing the perovskite loop: aqueous recovery and reuse of MAPbI3 for film, device, and nanocrystal reuse
- 1Department of Materials, Molecular Sciences Research Hub, Imperial College London, London, W12 0BZ, UK.
- 2Department of Chemistry, Molecular Sciences Research Hub, Imperial College London, London, W12 0BZ, UK. [email protected].
Abstract
The rapid commercialisation of organic-inorganic metal halide perovskites (MHPs) presents significant end-of-life challenges, particularly owing to the environmental and health risks their lead content poses. Despite efforts to improve perovskite device performance, comparatively little attention has been given to safe and sustainable recycling, with reported approaches being reliant on hazardous solvents, including DMF. Here, we report the development and use of a water-based solvent for the selective recovery of methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI₃) from MHP devices. The solvent comprises of water with low concentrations of dissolved malic acid, β-alanine, and sodium iodide (NaI), in which the organic additives enable MAPbI₃ dissolution and NaI supports direct MHP recovery. Owing to the temperature dependent solubility of MAPbI₃ in our solvent, high-purity powders can be recovered through precipitation by solvent cooling. Films fabricated from recycled MAPbI₃ exhibit microstructures and bandgaps comparable to those prepared from pristine MAPbI₃, whilst recycled films show improved morphological uniformity and reduced non-radiative recombination. In photoconductor devices, recycled MAPbI₃ films deliver a higher photocurrent density, 1.48 × 10⁻⁵ A cm⁻², and lower dark current density, 1.25 × 10⁻⁷ A cm⁻² compared to their pristine analogues. When incorporated into p-i-n photovoltaic devices, recycled MAPbI₃ films retain >90% of the efficiency of pristine devices. Furthermore, demonstrating the versatility of the solvent system beyond thin-film reuse, MAPbI₃ recovered from thin films is successfully repurposed for the preparation of perovskite nanocrystals. Overall, this work establishes a green and efficient route for the recovery, recycling, and reuse of metal halide perovskites (MHPs), supporting a more circular lifecycle for emerging perovskite optoelectronics.
Related
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BibTeX
@article{du2026closing,
title = {{Closing the perovskite loop: aqueous recovery and reuse of MAPbI3 for film, device, and nanocrystal reuse}},
author = {Zhaoyi Du and Ding Ding and Longren Li and Weitao Qian and Enny Tran and Milo S P Shaffer and Artem A Bakulin and Nicola Gasparini and Martyn A McLachlan},
journal = {Materials horizons},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1039/d6mh01719c},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13717556},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Closing the perovskite loop: aqueous recovery and reuse of MAPbI3 for film, device, and nanocrystal reuse
AU - Zhaoyi Du
AU - Ding Ding
AU - Longren Li
AU - Weitao Qian
AU - Enny Tran
AU - Milo S P Shaffer
AU - Artem A Bakulin
AU - Nicola Gasparini
AU - Martyn A McLachlan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
JO - Materials horizons
DO - 10.1039/d6mh01719c
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13717556
AB - The rapid commercialisation of organic-inorganic metal halide perovskites (MHPs) presents significant end-of-life challenges, particularly owing to the environmental and health risks their lead content poses. Despite efforts to improve perovskite device performance, comparatively little attention has been given to safe and sustainable recycling, with reported approaches being reliant on hazardous solvents, including DMF. Here, we report the development and use of a water-based solvent for the selective recovery of methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI₃) from MHP devices. The solvent comprises of water with low concentrations of dissolved malic acid, β-alanine, and sodium iodide (NaI), in which the organic additives enable MAPbI₃ dissolution and NaI supports direct MHP recovery. Owing to the temperature dependent solubility of MAPbI₃ in our solvent, high-purity powders can be recovered through precipitation by solvent cooling. Films fabricated from recycled MAPbI₃ exhibit microstructures and bandgaps comparable to those prepared from pristine MAPbI₃, whilst recycled films show improved morphological uniformity and reduced non-radiative recombination. In photoconductor devices, recycled MAPbI₃ films deliver a higher photocurrent density, 1.48 × 10⁻⁵ A cm⁻², and lower dark current density, 1.25 × 10⁻⁷ A cm⁻² compared to their pristine analogues. When incorporated into p-i-n photovoltaic devices, recycled MAPbI₃ films retain >90% of the efficiency of pristine devices. Furthermore, demonstrating the versatility of the solvent system beyond thin-film reuse, MAPbI₃ recovered from thin films is successfully repurposed for the preparation of perovskite nanocrystals. Overall, this work establishes a green and efficient route for the recovery, recycling, and reuse of metal halide perovskites (MHPs), supporting a more circular lifecycle for emerging perovskite optoelectronics.
SN - 2051-6347
SN - 2051-6355
ER -