Green Synthesis Approaches of Metal Halide Perovskites for Efficient Solar Cells and Beyond

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• Prof Hongxia Wang - Queensland University of Technology, Australia
• Friday 19 September 2025, 11:00-12:00
• Lecture Theatre 1, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, West Cambridge Site.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact wm362.

Semiconductor materials based on metal halide perovskites have attracted significant attention from both the research community and industry over the past decade, due to their impressive performance in solar cells and other optoelectronic devices such as light-emitting diodes.

Currently, the most widely used methods for synthesizing perovskite films rely on solution processing which involves large quantities of hazardous, highly coordinating aprotic polar solvents, such as dimethylformamide (DMF). The toxic nature of these solvents raises serious concerns regarding their impact on human health, safety, and the environment. In particular, DMF —one of the most commonly used solvents in current perovskite synthesis—has been officially banned for use in manufacturing within Europe. This regulatory restriction poses a significant barrier to the commercial production of metal halide perovskite materials for various applications (1).

Therefore, it is critical to develop alternative, sustainable solution-processing methods that employ environmentally friendly, green solvent systems. In my talk, I will present our research on the development of green processing techniques for synthesizing metal halide perovskites using environmentally benign solvents such as water, protic ionic liquids, and biomass-derived solvents (2,3).

I will demonstrate how the choice of solvent system during synthesis influences the physicochemical properties of the resulting perovskite materials—including their morphology, and optical and electrical characteristics—as well as the selection of precursor materials. These factors, in turn, play a decisive role in determining device performance and stability in applications such as solar cells and light-emitting diodes.

Reference Minh Tam Hoang, Feray Ünlü, Wayde Martens, John Bell, Sanjay Mathur, Hongxia Wang, “Towards the environmentally friendly solution processing of metal halide perovskite technology”, Green Chemistry, 2021, 23, 5302-5336. Minh Tam Hoang, Yang Yang, Ngoc Duy Pham, Hongxia Wang, “Ecofriendly Solution Processing of Perovskite Solar Cells using Water”, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2024, 15(26), 6880-6889. Minh Tam Hoang, Ngoc Duy Pham, Yang Yang, Vincent Tiing Tiong, Chao Zhang, Ke Gui, Hong Chen, Jin Chang, Jianpu Wang, Dmitri Golberg, John Bell, Hongxia Wang, A facile, environmentally friendly synthesis of strong photo-emissive methylammonium lead bromide perovskite nanocrystals enabled by ionic liquids’, Green Chemistry, 2020, 22(11), 3433-3440.

This talk is part of the Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology series.

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