Fig. 1: Toxicity and carbon footprint of solvents for OSCs.

a, Schematic diagram showing the potential reduction of CO₂ emissions for organic electronic devices by circular carbon pathways including carbon valorization, recycling and carbon capture and utilization through renewable biomass feedstocks for terpene solvent production. b, Oral toxicity LD₅₀ (rat), which refers to the toxicity measured with rats, versus boiling point of some of the most commonly used solvents for organic electronic devices including OPVs, OLEDs and OFETs and the proposed terpene green solvents. The coloured arrow denotes the transition from toxic and unsustainable halogenated solvents (grey squares) towards usable non-halogenated (NH) (blue circles) and non-aromatic (NA) solvents (green triangles). The four vertical dotted lines denote the toxicity of common compounds in medicine and food (paracetamol in purple, salt in orange, fructose in baby blue and baking soda in black), while the green shadowed area denotes the boiling point range for blade coating. c, Global warming potential (GWP) given in equivalent kg of CO₂ of different industrial solvents obtained from different life-cycle assessment studies and the ecoinvent life-cycle assessment database^24,25,27. d, Oral toxicity LD₅₀ versus power conversion efficiency of OPV devices focusing on the most notable works on green solvents divided by classification; the lime green shadowed zone presents areas of opportunity in research. e, LD₅₀ versus current efficiency of OLED devices fabricated with green solvents. f, LD₅₀ versus mobility of OFET devices fabricated with green solvents. An expanded form of these graphs is found in Supplementary Information and at www.omegalabresearch.com/resources. Panel a created partially with BioRender.com (images on the left).