Abiotic depletion and the potential risk to the supply of cesium

Abstract

The petroleum exploration industry is the largest end user of cesium where it is employed in oil well drilling fluid. It has recently been broadly reported that the inclusion of cesium into perovskite for photovoltaics and optoelectronics significantly improves their properties. If this element is eventually incorporated into commercial perovskite photovoltaic devices, this usage will add to the amount of Cs required. Herein, mineral resources and the extraction rate of Cs are collected, despite the scarcity and uncertainty of the data. Considering only the Cs resources currently known, as well as assuming the current extraction rate as constant, Cs resources will be completely depleted by 2056. The abiotic depletion potential impact category factor for Cs is calculated to be 1.25·10⁻⁴ kg Sbeq. The supply risk of Cs is obtained considering that either a) Canada and Zimbabwe are the main producers or b) China controls all production. The results concur that there is an increase in the supply risk when all Cs production is concentrated in a single place.