Recently, Professor Jiashuo Li’s team from the Institute of Blue and Green Development at Shandong University, in collaboration with Professor Feng Gao’s team from Linköping University in Sweden, has reported important progress in the sustainability assessment of perovskite light-emitting diode (PeLED) technology. The related findings, entitled “Towards sustainable perovskite light-emitting diodes,” were published online in Nature Sustainability. Xiaotian Ma from Shandong University and Muyi Zhang from Linköping University are co-first authors. Professor Jiashuo Li from Shandong University and Professor Feng Gao from Linköping University are co-corresponding authors.
Perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) are emerging as leading candidates for next-generation lighting and display technologies. Despite rapid progress, the performance of these devices still relies on lead-based components, raising concerns about potential lead leakage and associated health risks. Additionally, current PeLEDs face challenges such as limited stability and high costs, which could hinder their broader application. There is a pressing need for a comprehensive assessment of PeLEDs from environmental, economic, and technical perspectives to guide future development—yet a unified evaluation framework remains lacking. This study evaluates the environmental and economic performance of 18 representative PeLED technologies. By identifying key factors influencing effective scaling strategies, it aims to provide valuable insights from a life cycle perspective to support the commercial advancement of PeLEDs.
The results show that PeLEDs demonstrate outstanding environmental performance, comparable to that of organic LEDs (OLEDs). Contrary to conventional perspectives, the assessment—based on extensive experimental data—reveals that lead in perovskites contributes less to overall device toxicity than other heavy metals and organic solvents. This is attributed to the extremely thin perovskite emission layer, which is only tens of nanometers thick, whereas other functional layers dominate in both thickness and material volume. Among different device types, red, green, blue (RGB), and white PeLEDs exhibit broadly similar environmental impacts. In contrast, near-infrared (NIR) PeLEDs show significantly higher impacts, primarily due to the use of gold (Au) electrodes. Replacing Au with alternative metals such as aluminum (Al), copper (Cu), or nickel (Ni) can reduce the environmental footprint of NIR devices to a level comparable to that of RGB PeLEDs.
Figure 2 | Life cycle impact profiles
To achieve sustainable industrial production of PeLEDs, their environmental impacts can be further reduced by implementing measures such as reusing organic cleaning solvents, recycling ITO glass substrates, and upgrading to large-scale deposition. Sustainably upgraded industrial PeLEDs are projected to reach the highest level of environmental performance among all lighting and display technologies, on par with OLEDs. Furthermore, the study proposes a new assessment parameter—relative impact mitigation time (RIMT). It is estimated that when the lifetime of PeLEDs reaches approximately 10,000 hours, it can effectively compensate for the environmental impacts generated during their production. The techno-economic assessment indicates that adopting large-scale manufacturing and recycling strategies can bring the cost of future PeLEDs down to around US$100 per square meter, making it comparable to the cost of commercial OLED panels. The primary contributor to the high cost is the charge transport materials, suggesting this should be the key focus for future cost-control efforts.
Figure 3 | Environmental benefits of industrial-scale PeLEDs.
Overall, this study demonstrates the potential of PeLEDs as a next-generation lighting and display technology from environmental, economic, and technical perspectives, providing insights relevant to their future sustainable commercial development. This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Energy Agency, and other funding sources.
Full article link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01503-7
