Investigation of Electrochemically Deposited and Chemically Reduced Platinum Nanostructured Thin Films as Counter Electrodes in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Abstract:In this paper, we demonstrated that platinum (Pt) counter electrodes (CEs) fabricated using electrochemical deposition and chemical reduction can replace conventional high-temperature thermally decomposed Pt electrodes. In this study, Pt electrodes were fabricated using thermal decomposition, electrochemical deposition, and chemical reduction, and the influence of the different Pt counter electrodes on the efficiency of the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) was analyzed. The properties of the various Pt CEs were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), surface area analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and cyclic voltammetry (CV). DSSCs with various Pt CEs were characterized using current density-voltage (J-V), incident photo-current conversion efficiency (IPCE), and EIS measurements. The results show that the power conversion efficiencies of these three types of DSSC devices were between 7.43% and 7.72%. The DSSCs based on the Pt electrode fabricated through electrochemical deposition exhibited the optimal power conversion efficiency. Because the processes of electrochemical deposition and chemical reduction do not require high-temperature sintering, these two methods are suitable for the fabrication of Pt on flexible plastic substrates.

Development of Electrode Deposition Methods for Scale-up of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

“…Using different deposition techniques affects the particle size, the surface area, the morphology as well as the catalytic and electrochemical properties of the electrode [15]. Electrochemical deposition, thermal decomposition, chemical reduction [16], spray deposition [17], spin coating, doctor blade coating, screen printing, physical vapor deposition, etc. have been explored.…”

Screen printed Sri Lankan vein graphite/polyaniline composite counter electrode for dye sensitized solar cells

“…Many methods such as screen printing, doctor blade, thermal decomposition, electrochemical deposition etc. have been reported to fabricate different counter electrodes for DSSCs (Kumar , 2019, Gomesh, 2015, Hao, 2014, Tsai, 2018. Among them, screen printing method was used for the fabrication of composite electrodes along with a binder, sincethe method results in uniform layer of SLVG/PANI composite on the surface of FTO glass substrates easily.…”