Issue 6, 2011
From the journal:

Energy & Environmental Science

Low-cost dye-sensitized solar cell based on nine kinds of carbon counter electrodes

Mingxing Wu,a   Xiao Lin,a   Tonghua Wang,b   Jieshan Qiub  and  Tingli Ma*a  

* Corresponding authors

a State Key laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, E101 building, Ganjingzi District, Dalian, P. R. China
E-mail: tinglima@dlut.edu.cn
Fax: +86-0411-39893820
Tel: +86-0411-39893820

b State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Carbon Research Laboratory, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, P. R China

Abstract

Nine kinds of carbon materials were introduced into dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) system as counter electrodes (CEs). We also compared the electrochemical catalytic activity of these carbon materials with Pt for the reduction of triiodide to iodide by measuring cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and Tafel-polarization curve. The nine kinds of carbon materials in this work included synthesized well-ordered mesoporous carbon (Com), activated carbon (Ca), carbon black (Cb), conductive carbon (Cc), carbon dye (Cd), carbon fiber (Cf), carbon nanotube (Cn), discarded toner of a printer (Cp) and fullerene (C60). All carbon materials showed electrochemical catalytic activity for triiodide reduction in the DSCs system. In particular, the synthesized Com showed excellent electrochemical catalytic activity which can be comparable to the performance of Pt. After optimizing the proportion of TiO2 added into the carbon paste and the spray time of the carbon paste, the DSCs based on these carbon CEs achieved energy conversion efficiencies of 2.8–7.5%. The results demonstrate that carbon material is a promising substitute for the expensive Pt CE for low-cost DSCs.

Graphical abstract: Low-cost dye-sensitized solar cell based on nine kinds of carbon counter electrodes

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C1EE01059J
Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Jan 2011
Accepted
12 Apr 2011
First published
16 May 2011

Energy Environ. Sci., 2011,4, 2308-2315

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Low-cost dye-sensitized solar cell based on nine kinds of carbon counter electrodes

M. Wu, X. Lin, T. Wang, J. Qiu and T. Ma, Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, 4, 2308 DOI: 10.1039/C1EE01059J

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