Carbon Fibers Coated with Ternary Ni–Co–Se Alloy Particles as a Low-Cost Counter Electrode for Flexible Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Compared to flat devices based on rigid substrates, cable-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells hold advantages of smaller size, light weight, facile fabrication, flexibility, and low cost, thus a promising direction for applications such as wearable electronic devices. However, most reported fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells use Pt wires as counter electrodes, which are high in cost. Herein, a flexible Pt-free counter electrode is fabricated via depositing ternary nickel cobalt selenide (Ni−Co−Se) particles on the surface of carbon fibers. Scanning electron microscopy and Xray diffraction are used to characterize the counter electrode and alloy material. Results from bare and modified carbon fiber counter electrodes reveal that Ni−Co−Se alloy particles greatly enhance electrocatalytic activity, leading to significant improvement in power conversion efficiency, which is comparable with devices using carbon fiber coated with Pt as the counter electrode. The performance increase may be attributed to the improved catalytic property of CoSe 2 due to its higher composition ratio and larger crystallite size. Bending and multiple irradiation cycling tests are also performed to show the superior flexibility and durability of the novel device.

Multifunctional Conductive Paths Obtained by Laser Processing of Non-Conductive Carbon Nanotube/Polypropylene Composites

“…Zero-dimensional (0D), 1D and 2D carbon structures have the potential to become materials of the next generation to be used in a series of applications, ranging from neuroscience [1] to energy fields [2]. As for materials for energy applications the research has been very active in recent years [3] and the interest includes, among other fields, supercapacitors [4], energy harvesting/storage [3,5], conversion devices [6,7], flexible electronics [8], sensors [9,10] and other electrochemical applications [11,12]. The limited amount in nature, the increasing price and demand for conventional materials (in particular metals) suggest that low-cost, high-performance and new materials would be desirable [13].…”

Mapping the Progress in Natural Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells: Materials, Parameters and Durability

“…Furthermore, Ti 3 C 2 performed as both a conducting layer and a catalyst and produced an efficiency of 8.68 % higher than the TCOÀ Pt counter electrode (4.03 %). Choudhury et al [307] fabricated DSSC using ternary nickel cobalt selenide free of Pt (NiCoSe) instead of Pt wire as a counter electrode to save money. Electrocatalytic activity increases as a result of the NiCoSe particle, which increases the conversion efficiency of the DSSC.…”

Recent advances in wearable self-powered energy systems based on flexible energy storage devices integrated with flexible solar cells

“…41 Consequently, considerable research work has been done on the development of exible DSSCs on transparent conductive oxide-coated polymer substrates. [42][43][44] In the work done by Xu et al, a exible DSSC was prepared based on a CuS transparent conductive lm (Fig. 4a), 45 in which the CuS lm shows good electrocatalytic performance, resulting in a PCE of 4.54% for the prepared DSSC.…”