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Journal of Clinical and Experimental Toxicology | Volume: 03 | ISSN: 2630-4570
allied
academies
November 04-05, 2019 | Prague, Czech Republic
2
nd
World Congress on
TOXICOLOGY AND APPLIED PHARMACOLOGY
Environmental hazards of Photovoltaic perovskites
László Forró
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland
T
he CH
3
NH
3
PbI
3
perovskite, is currently the most
promising compound in photovoltaic (PV) technologies
for making highly efficient solar cells because of their
simple fabrication procedure, low price, and high
efficiency. Several companies are already building
perovskite-based PV devices for commercialization in the
near future. Nevertheless, the perovskite contains Pb, and
safety concerns during PV fabrication and transportation
have not yet been addressed. But not only direct human
exposure is an issue, but its release into the environment,
soil and waterways, after failure of large area solar cells
also represents major health risks. Here an extensive
toxicity study of the most promising photovoltaic
perovskites CH
3
NH
3
PbI
3
and CH
3
NH
3
SnI
3
are presented.
On cell cultures, the zoom-in
in vitro
(modification of the
genes upon perovskite exposure, biochemical changes,
various assays) and on living organisms (C-elegans and
Drosophila) the zoom-out in vivo studies both show a high
level of toxicity. The results are conclusive and encouraging
the scientific community to conduct further tests on more
complex organisms, but also to search for new materials
which do not represent risk to the environment.
e:
laszlo.forro@epfl.ch