Spherical polypyrrole nanoparticles as a highly efficient counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Discrete spherical polypyrrole (PPy) nanoparticles with a uniform diameter of $85 nm and electrical conductivity of $10 S cm À1 were fabricated by chemical oxidative polymerization within micelles composed of myristyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (MTAB) and decyl alcohol as the nanoreactors. A methanol-based colloidal dispersion containing 5 wt% PPy was dropcast directly onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass to use as counter electrodes (CEs) in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The surface resistivity of the PPy layer on the FTO glass decreased from 624 to 387 U sq À1 after post-doping with concentrated HCl vapor for 1 min. The DSSCs made of PPy/FTO and HCl-doped PPy/FTO CEs exhibited power conversion efficiencies of $5.28 and $6.83%, respectively under standard AM 1.5 sunlight illumination. The post-doped and highly oxidized PPy allowed the electrons to move into the PPy layer readily and facilitated the electrocatalytic reaction of the I 3 À /I À redox couple, giving enhanced cell performance. Moreover, the cell efficiency was enhanced to $7.73% with further fine tuning of the electrolyte composition, which is comparable to the value ($8.2%) using conventional Pt CEs.

Simple and inexpensive electrodeposited silver/polyaniline composite counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

“…However, Pt CE is expensive and restricts its use at commercial scale DSSC [5,6]. To reduce the fabrication cost of DSSC, it is required to adopt cost-effective alternative materials such as carbonous materials, conducting polymers, and their composites for CEs [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

Application of Poly (3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene): polystyrenesulfonate counter electrode in polymer heterojunction dye-sensitized solar cells

“…So, the key challenges for DSSCs are developing low-cost and platinum-free counter-electrode materials with relatively high conversion efficiency. However, highly desired counter-electrode materials of high electrical conductivity and superior electrocatalytic activity [12,13] are rare.…”

Effect of CuBr2salt treatment on the performance of nanocolloidal PPy:PSS multilayer thin film counter electrodes of dye‐sensitized solar cells

“…They are preferred because of their relatively low cost, high conductivity, large electrochemical surface area, and good electrocatalytic activity for I CEs for DSCs, polypyrrole (PPy) is the most promising candidate, which exhibits significant versatility based on its particle size and is tunable in the presence of an anionic surfactant. [13][14][15][16][17][18] Though PPy receives considerable interest, processing it into an ultrathin film is a challenging task because of its intractability, insolubility, and infusibility in most common organic solvents. 19,20 PPy is usually synthesized by electrochemical and chemical oxidative polymerization techniques; in both processes they exhibit poor solubility.…”