Enhanced light harvesting in dye-sensitized solar cells with highly reflective TCO- and Pt-less counter electrodes

Lee, Kun Seok; Yun, Jin Ho; Han, Yong Hyeon; Yim, Jin Heong; Park, Nam Gyu; Cho, Kuk Young; Park, Jae Hyung

doi:10.1039/c1jm13408f

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Recently, research into sustainable and renewable energy resources has attracted much attention due to the increase in concerns about the energy crisis, decreasing availability of fossil fuels, and environmental issues. − From these points of view, photovoltaic technologies are a highly desirable solution because clean solar energy is supplied indefinitely by the sun. In particular, among the photovoltaic devices, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) proposed by O’Regan and Grätzel have been intensively studied because they can convert sunlight into electricity and possess many advantages, such as high power conversion efficiency, environmentally friendly nature, and low-cost fabrication. − …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft-Templated Tellurium-Doped Mesoporous Carbon as a Pt-Free Electrocatalyst for High-Performance Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Kim

Zhou

Kowalewski

et al. 2018

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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Among various photovoltaic devices, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are one of the most potentially clean and renewable energy conversion devices because of their low fabrication cost, environmentally friendly nature, and high power conversion efficiency. However, the use of rare metals such as Pt counter electrodes (CEs) is one of the major drawbacks of DSSC devices for broad real-life applications. In this regard, alternative materials to Pt CEs have been long sought for DSSCs employing both cobalt and iodine redox couples. Therefore, in this study, softtemplated tellurium-doped mesoporous carbons (Te-SMCs) were synthesized for the first time by the simple pyrolysis of PAN-b-PBA block copolymer in the presence of a tellurium precursor for replacing the Pt CE. To confirm the chemical composition and porosity, the as-prepared Te-SMC materials were evaluated by elemental analysis (XPS and EDS) and nitrogen sorption isotherms measurement. The as-prepared Te-SMC materials contained mainly mesopores and retained the three-dimensional hierarchical graphite-like structure with many defect sites. They displayed doping levels with nitrogen of 9.15 atom % and tellurium of 0.15 atom % and had a specific surface area of 540 m 2 g −1 . Therefore, these characteristics enabled the development of a high-performance CE in DSSCs with cobalt and iodine redox couples. As a result of its catalytic performance, Te-SMC exhibited outstanding electrocatalytic activity as well as a significantly improved electrochemical stability than those of Pt CE for both redox couples even after 1000 potential cycles. The results show that a maximum conversion efficiency of 11.64 and 9.67% could be achieved under one sun illumination (AM 1.5G) for SGT-021/Co(bpy) 3 2+/3+ -and N719/I − /I 3 − -based devices with Te-SMC CEs, and their power conversion efficiency is superior to the corresponding device with Pt CEs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft-Templated Tellurium-Doped Mesoporous Carbon as a Pt-Free Electrocatalyst for High-Performance Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Kim

Zhou

Kowalewski

et al. 2018

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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“…A number of investigations have been carried out to replace the Pt-coated FTO counter electrodes in DSCs by low-cost materials, such as different carbon species − and conducting polymers. − DSCs with carbon black-based counter electrodes have yielded record efficiencies of about 9% under 1 sun illumination . With conducting polymers, micro-porous polyaniline CE for DSC resulted in a solar cells with a PCE of 7.1% .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Interfacial Charge Transfer between Metallic PEDOT Counter Electrodes and a Cobalt Redox Shuttle in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Park

Pazoki²,

Aitola³

et al. 2014

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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Conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) doped with iron(III) tris-p-toluenesulfonate (PEDOT:Tos) having metallic conductivity was coated onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass and plain glass substrates and used as a counter electrode (CE) in a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) with a [Co(bpy)3](3+/2+) complex redox shuttle. DSCs with PEDOT:Tos/glass CE yielded power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of 6.3%, similar to that of DSCs with platinized FTO glass CE (6.1%). The PEDOT:Tos-based counter electrodes had 5 to 10 times lower charge-transfer resistance than the Pt/FTO CE in DSCs, as analyzed by impedance spectroscopy. More detailed studies in symmetrical CE-CE cells showed that the PEDOT:Tos layers are nanoporous. Not all internal area can be used catalytically under solar cell conditions and effective charge-transfer resistance was similar to that of Pt/FTO.

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“…The variation of FF is consistent with the trend of J sc . The increase in the shortcircuit current density of the QDSCs may be attributed to the improved light harvesting efficiency owing to the superior light reflection of the Cu-CoS(II) CE [25,50,51]. Furthermore, the incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) of the Cu-CoS(II)-based cells is higher than that of other cells in the 400-800 nm spectral range, which is consistent with the higher J sc ( Figure S7 in Supporting information).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D Cu-doped CoS porous nanosheet films as superior counterelectrodes for quantum dot-sensitized solar cells

Peng

Zhang

et al. 2015

Nano Energy

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Enhanced light harvesting in dye-sensitized solar cells with highly reflective TCO- and Pt-less counter electrodes

Cited by 17 publications

References 19 publications

Soft-Templated Tellurium-Doped Mesoporous Carbon as a Pt-Free Electrocatalyst for High-Performance Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Soft-Templated Tellurium-Doped Mesoporous Carbon as a Pt-Free Electrocatalyst for High-Performance Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Understanding Interfacial Charge Transfer between Metallic PEDOT Counter Electrodes and a Cobalt Redox Shuttle in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

3D Cu-doped CoS porous nanosheet films as superior counterelectrodes for quantum dot-sensitized solar cells

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