Dealing with Lead in Hybrid Perovskite: A Challenge to Tackle for a Bright Future of This Technology?

Hybrid Perovskite (HP) semiconductors have been skyrocketing the field of new generation photovoltaics and expanding into advanced optoelectronics. Perovskite photovoltaics (PV) can give a tremendous push to the green energy transition, which calls for efficient, low cost, but also environmentally friendly solutions. Halide perovskites present a serious drawback related to the presence of toxic materials, i.e., lead, with its associated health and environment concerns. These concerns severely hamper their commercialization. So far, only a few viable alternatives to Pb have been found, which lag behind in terms of power conversion efficiency. Here, a forward-looking perspective is developed presenting different potential strategies to overcome the environmental and health issues related to the use and release of lead for operative HP solar cells. The possible lead-leakage paths and related remediation tools are reviewed, and possible strategies are collated with a view to beginning a new era of lead containing HP devices. Finally, through a comparison with existing lead-based technology, a comparative study is presented to provide the tools that are essential for a real evaluation of the impact of lead content on HP commercialization.