A team of engineers at washington university in st.
Non toxic solar panels.
Additionally to produce solar panels manufacturers need to handle toxic chemicals.
While solar panels are considered a form of clean renewable energy the manufacturing process does produce greenhouse gas emissions.
With recycling expensive.
Whether the lead contained within perovskite solar cells represents a tangible risk to humans animals and the environment is being debated however some scientists are now searching for non toxic.
Their work was published online june 11 in chemistry of materials.
In contrast perovskite compounds readily dissolve in water.
Louis has found what they believe is a more stable less toxic semiconductor for solar applications using a novel double perovskite oxide discovered through data analytics and quantum mechanical calculations.
In collaboration with colleagues at mit the national renewable energy laboratory and colorado school of mines in the us the cambridge researchers have shown that bismuth which sits next to lead in the periodic table could be a non toxic alternative to lead for use in next generation solar cells.