Publication date: 15th December 2025
End-of-life management remains one of the most pressing technological barriers to the large-scale deployment of metal halide perovskite photovoltaics. While Pb-based perovskites enable high efficiencies with low fabrication costs, the risk of Pb leakage during disposal poses a major obstacle for their commercialisation. Developing scalable, low-impact recycling routes is therefore essential to ensure safe device decommissioning and to meet upcoming environmental regulations.
Current recovery strategies often rely on hazardous organic solvents [1-2] or yield only partial Pb recovery in water-based processes, leaving aqueous waste streams with Pb concentrations above acceptable limits (>300 ppm).[3] This gap highlights the need for environmentally benign adsorbents capable of efficiently removing Pb from perovskite dissolution baths.
In this work we explore green, water-compatible strategies for Pb recovery using metal organic frameworks (MOF) and magnetic adsorbents designed from earth-abundant, low-toxicity precursors. UiO-66 is synthesised via mechanochemistry using only 1 µL of methanol per mg of reagents. A highly crystalline material is obtained in 3 h, exhibiting negligible Zr leaching in water (<0.05%) and excellent stability under highly acidic conditions (pH < 1) and elevated temperatures (up to 400°C). Preliminary tests show modest Pb uptake in aqueous PbI2 solutions (approximately 25% removal at 250 ppm), associated with the presence of monocarboxylic acids at defect sites. Improved adsorption capacities are achieved by replacing these modulators with functional molecules that exhibit stronger affinity for Pb. In parallel, Fe3O4@zeolite magnetic composites are synthesised by growing the zeolite hydrothermally over the magnetite nanoparticles. These materials achieve 94% Pb removal from 250 ppm PbI2 solutions within 2 h, followed by rapid magnetic separation within seconds and offering potential for continuous or cyclic operation to further reduce Pb levels toward the desired thresholds.
Together, these results demonstrate the potential of combining MOF-based and magnetic adsorbents to enable fully water-based recycling processes that efficiently recover Pb while minimising secondary contamination.
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