Counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are regarded as prospective solar cells for the next generation of photovoltaic technologies and have become research hotspots in the PV field. The counter electrode, as a crucial component of DSSCs, collects electrons from the external circuit and catalyzes the redox reduction in the electrolyte, which has a significant influence on the photovoltaic performance, long-term stability and cost of the devices. Solar cells, dye-sensitized solar cells, as well as the structure, principle, preparation and characterization of counter electrodes are mentioned in the introduction section. The next six sections discuss the counter electrodes based on transparency and flexibility, metals and alloys, carbon materials, conductive polymers, transition metal compounds, and hybrids, respectively. The special features and performance, advantages and disadvantages, preparation, characterization, mechanisms, important events and development histories of various counter electrodes are presented. In the eighth section, the development of counter electrodes is summarized with an outlook. This article panoramically reviews the counter electrodes in DSSCs, which is of great significance for enhancing the development levels of DSSCs and other photoelectrochemical devices.

Recent Progress in the Design and Synthesis of Nitrides for Mesoscopic and Perovskite Solar Cells

“…[4,11,12] Figure 2b shows the resultso fD FT calculations reportedb yY ang et al on the adsorptione nergies of Io nt he surfaceo fvariousm aterials. [4,11,12] Figure 2b shows the resultso fD FT calculations reportedb yY ang et al on the adsorptione nergies of Io nt he surfaceo fvariousm aterials.…”

“…[1] In addition to silicon and thin-film photovoltaics, which are already commercialized and leading the market, organic-inorganic hybrid photovoltaics are of significant research interest due to their characteristic advantages. From the very beginning, platinum electrocatalysts have been employed in the counter electrodes (CEs) of DSCs, [11,12] and the prices of poly-meric hole-transport materials (HTMs) for PSCs are higher than that of gold. [7][8][9][10] Althought he overall costs of materials for these organic-inorganic solar cellsa re quite competitive, there are still costly components in state-of-the-art designs.…”

“…[20][21][22][23] In addition, these compound materials suffer from the following shortcomings. [12,27] In addition, the formation of metal-nitrogen bonds modifies unfilledf rontier states of these metals and resultsi ne lectronic structures that resemble those of noble metals,t ypically that of platinum. [24] Carbides have excellent electricalp roperties and chemicals tabilities;h owever,t he syntheses of carbide nanomaterials usually accompany at hermal carburization process, during which carbonaceous cokes form on the surface, and it is thus difficult to obtain nanostructured materials with carbide-terminateds urfaces.…”

Annealing‐Free Cr2O3 Electron‐Selective Layer for Efficient Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cells

“…shorter carriert ransport distance and higher transport efficiency,l eading to higherp hotovoltaic performance. Figure 9a shows the incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) [46] spectrum of the PSC device based on Cr 2 O 3 -6000 ESL and the integrated currento ft he same device. This result indicates that as uitable spin-coating speed is conducive to satisfactory photovoltaic performance.…”

A review on applications of Cu2ZnSnS4 as alternative counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells

“…1(a) that the publications on "solar cells" increased according to the literature search based on ISI Web of Science and WIOP (2017). 5 As compared to silicon-based and thin-film solar cells, the third-generation solar cells such as dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have the potential for a lower processing cost in the emerging PV fields. Reports on integrated devices based on DSSCs are more numerous as compared to PSCs based on the maturity of the DSSC technology.…”