Incineration of organic solar cells: Efficient end of life management by quantitative silver recovery

Abstract

Recovery of silver from the electrodes of roll-​to-​roll processed org. solar cells after incineration has been performed quant. by extn. with nitric acid. This procedure is more than 10 times faster than previous reports and the amt. of acid needed for the extn. is reduced by a factor of 100-​150. LCA studies show that the resulting environmental impacts from silver extn. of incinerated ashes are more favorable on almost all std. factors compared to extn. from shredded org. solar cells. The so lessened environmental impacts by efficient recovery fully justify the use of Ag as an electrode in scaled prodn. of org. solar cells.