Re-using end-of-life solar waste for solid state lithium metal batteries

Abstract

Upcycling materials from end-of-life photovoltaics (EoL PV) into energy storage applications is gaining traction due to the favorable promotion of the circular economy. However, despite being one of the heaviest components, solar glass from EoL PV is often overlooked in this upcycling trend. Inert nanoparticles have been identified to enhance the performance of solid polymer electrolytes (SPE), which can potentially be sourced from the solar glass. In this study, a scalable ball milling process was used to mill broken glass from end-of-life solar panels down to approximately 300 nm. These milled glass nanoparticles were then incorporated into a polyethylene oxide-based (PEO) solid polymer electrolyte. The resulting SPE demonstrated increased electrochemical stability and an improved ionic conductivity of 1.10 × 10⁻⁵ S cm⁻¹, while maintaining a specific capacity of 113.60 mAh g⁻¹ after 80 charge cycles, marking an 8.3 % improvement over pure PEO with Li salt samples.