Toxicity of Cadmium Telluride, Copper Indium Diselenide, and Copper Gallium Diselenide

This paper reviews recently derived toxicity data for Copper Indium Diselen ide (CIS), Cadmium Gallium Diselenide (CGS) and Cadmium Telluride (CT), pro mising new materials on which a new generation of thin-film photovoltaic ce lls for generating electricity may be based The new data deal with systemic and reproductive toxicity, acute pulmonary toxicity, and comparative pulmo nary absorption, distribution and toxicity of these materials in laboratory rats. CT is shown to have higher lung toxicity than CIS, with the CGS toxi city being the lowest in the group. These data are extended to human exposu re levels and exposure limits for CT are derived. The implications of these findings to the photovoltaic industry are also discussed. Published in 199 9 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This article is a U.S. Government Work and is in the public domain in the United States.