Background and Purpose: The emergence of new technologies is driving recent advancements in future-oriented LCA. However, apart from the intricacies of modeling the future, another critical consideration is the selection of technologies among others at the lab scale (i.e., which technologies are promising for scaling up?). This study aims to introduce a systematic technology selection and subsequent data inventory preceding a lab-scale LCA for screening purposes. The rapidly expanding field of perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) serves as a case, which lacks any known LCA study as of the writing of this abstract.

Methods: A series of workshops was conducted between researchers in sustainability assessment and material science at Linköping University. The objectives of these workshops were (i) to design a literature search and selection aimed at achieving comprehensive coverage of promising PeLED devices, and (ii) to collect material and energy input-output data, simulating similar laboratory synthesis conditions.

Results: Snowballing from Nature Portfolio journals published between 2018 and 2023, 18 PeLED devices were identified as promising based on four elicited selection criteria: external quantum efficiency, lifetime, brightness, and luminuous power efficiency (LPE). LPE required derivation as it is not directly reported in literature but is deemed important for LCA. LPE measures the amount of power used to generate light or the electricity consumption during the use phase.

Inventory of data from the literature demands completeness and comparability—aspects which are not detailed in typical lab-scale LCA. Completeness necessitates deriving the amount of materials from the given concentration of reagents and thickness of different layers of PeLED devices, and the energy consumption from the time of use of every machine. Comparability requires adjusting effective material use based on stoichiometric relations and resulting device active area, knowing that the reported material proportions are not optimized for material efficiency.

Conclusions: Interdisciplinary collaboration is essential for a systematic technology selection and subsequent data inventory. This contribution extends beyond the common narrow lab-scale LCAs assessing only one or a few new technologies, instead providing a comprehensive selection aimed at guiding further technological developments in consideration of promising technologies from broad technology pool.