Design of highly ordered hierarchical catalytic nanostructures as high-flexibility counter electrodes for fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Ordered array structures will greatly reduce the stress formation in wearable electric devices during dynamic bending operation. In this work, highly flexible TiN-based fiber counter electrodes (FCEs) were designed via a post-ammonization treatment on the hydrothermally grown TiO2 nanowire arrays. Results show that the obtained TiN nanorod arrays (NRAs) are well aligned with a diameter of 200–320 nm and a length of several hundred nanometers to ∼1 μm. Moreover, fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells assembled using TiN FCEs showed the maximum photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.69%, which is 16.3% higher than that of the ones based on Pt FCEs. Analysis indicated that this enhancement in PCE could be mainly due to the better electrochemical catalytic activity of TiN NRAs. Furthermore, the optimizations of the nanoscale morphologies of TiN NRAs suggest that both small diameters and large lengths can benefit the PCE and the dynamic bending stability, while the diameters show a major influence on them. The optimal FCEs show an ultralow decay rate of 0.017‰ per bending cycle.

Interfacial engineering of nanostructured photoanode in fiber dye‐sensitized solar cells for self‐charging power systems

“…Fiber dye-sensitized solar cells (FDSSCs) are low-cost, flexible, lightweight, and suitable for convenient and sustainable power supply. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10] FDSSCs are free of transparent conductive-oxide coating and meet the increasing demand for wearable and portable devices owing to their structural features such as 3D absorption of light and 1D device shape. Nanostructured titania materials such as hydrolyzed TiO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) and TiO 2 nanotubes as photoanodes of FDSSCs play a vital role in photovoltaic performance.…”

“…Ever‐growing development of massive amount of flexible electronics raises further concerns on power source, in terms of the cost and sustainability. Fiber dye‐sensitized solar cells (FDSSCs) are low‐cost, flexible, lightweight, and suitable for convenient and sustainable power supply 4–10 . FDSSCs are free of transparent conductive‐oxide coating and meet the increasing demand for wearable and portable devices owing to their structural features such as 3D absorption of light and 1D device shape.…”