Researchers from Jülich Research Centre in Erlangen, Germany, have proven that centuries-old toxic waste in the form of old lead bullets can still be useful today. The team sourced these 16th- and 17th-century bullets from eBay, as one does, and then “upcycled” them into usable lead iodide.
Lead iodide is a critical component of perovskite solar panels, considered among the most cost-effective and energy-efficient of solar panel types. The team washed and melted down the bullets before putting them into an acetonitrile solvent and dissolved iodine mixture and adding an electrical current. This produced a high-purity lead iodide powder that was then used to grow perovskite crystals that can be used to make solar panels.
“This work shows that toxic legacy waste can become a resource for clean energy,” said Ian Marius Peters, a physicist and co-author of the study.
