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

Peng, Shengjie; Zhang, Tianran; Li, Linlin; Shen, Chao; Cheng, Fangyi; Srinivasan, Madhavi; Yan, Qingyu; Ramakrishna, Seeram; Chen, Jun

doi:10.1016/j.nanoen.2015.06.019

Cited by 42 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 52 publications

(55 reference statements)

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“…Among all the candidates with weak hydrogen binding energy, Cu has stood out to be one of the best due to its low cost and high natural abundance. [ 9 ] Additionally, it has been demonstrated that Cu as dopant can give rise to number catalytic active sites in the case of CoS. [ 10 ] As for OER, despite not being widely investigated, Cu(II) has the potential as a mediator to speed up the reaction noticeably. [ 11 ]…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electronic Modulation of Nickel Disulfide toward Efficient Water Electrolysis

Dinh

Sun

Pei

et al. 2020

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friendly and sustainable sources of power are being looked at in order to meet the demand. Among all the developing technologies, solar-light-coupled electrochemical water splitting is widely perceived as one of the best solutions due to the generation of hydrogen -a sustainable and clean source of energy. [1] It is known that noble group compounds, namely Pt and RuO 2 /IrO 2 , are the state-of-the-art electrocatalysts toward two critical half-reactions of water splitting -hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). [2] However, the high price and natural shortage impede their further application. Therefore, developing lowcost, efficient electrocatalyst is urgently desired.Motivated by the challenge, a wide range of materials have been investigated and developed. [3] Among them, nickelbased materials have attracted a great deal of attention mainly because their eight valence electrons in 3d orbitals enable the easy alteration of electronic structure through phase engineering (laser-induced, mechanical strain, weak Ar plasma treatment, e-beam irradiation, and plasmonic hotelectron-induced), heterostructuring (NiS 2 -MoS 2 , Ni 3 S 2 -MoS 2 , V-Ni 2 P). [3c,4] A representative compound in this nickel-based family, pyrite-type nickel sulfides (NiS 2 ) is emerging as a highly Developing highly efficient earth-abundant nickel-based compounds is an important step to realize hydrogen generation from water. Herein, the electronic modulation of the semiconducting NiS 2 by cation doping for advanced water electrolysis is reported. Both theoretical calculations and temperaturedependent resistivity measurements indicate the semiconductor-to-conductor transition of NiS 2 after Cu incorporation. Further calculations also suggest the advantages of Cu dopant to cathodic water electrolysis by bringing Gibbs free energy of H adsorption at both Ni sites and S sites much closer to zero. It is noteworthy that water dissociation on Cu-doped NiS 2 (Cu-NiS 2 ) surface is even more favorable than those on NiS 2 and Pt(111). Thus, the prepared Cu-NiS 2 shows noticeably improved performance toward alkaline hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions (HER and OER). Specifically, it requires merely 232 mV OER overpotential to drive 10 mA cm −2 ; in parallel with Tafel slopes of 46 mV dec −1 . Regarding HER, an onset overpotential of only 68 mV is achieved. When integrated as both electrodes for water electrolysis, Cu-NiS 2 needs only 1.64 V to drive 10 mA cm −2 , surpassing the state-of-the-art Ir/C-Pt/C couple (1.71 V). This work opens up an avenue to engineer low-cost and earth-abundant catalysts performing on par with the noble-metal-based one for water splitting.The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under https://doi.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electronic Modulation of Nickel Disulfide toward Efficient Water Electrolysis

Dinh

Sun

Pei

et al. 2020

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“…One drawback of this method is that the polysulfide electrolyte may continuously react with the copper in the brass substrate, thereby making the counter electrode chemically and mechanically unstable in the photovoltaic device. Therefore, several alternative have been explored to replace the brass substrate, including composites of carbon black with PbS, reduced graphene oxide with Cu 2 S, cobalt pyrite (CoS 2 ) thin films, metal sulfides deposited onto ITO porous film, and 3D Cu‐doped CoS porous nanosheet films …”

Section: Overview Of Qdscsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, severala lternative have been explored to replacet he brass substrate, including compositeso fc arbon black with PbS, [49] reduced graphene oxide with Cu 2 S, [50] cobalt pyrite (CoS 2 )thin films, [51] metal sulfides depositedo nto ITO porous film, [52] and 3D Cu-dopedC oS porous nanosheet films. [53] For solid-state QDSCs, the counter electrode should form an Ohmic contact with the HTMa nd possess good electrical conductivity.T he most-commonly used materials are noble metals, such as gold and silver. [33a, 54]…”

Section: Counterelectrodesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interfacial Engineering for Quantum‐Dot‐Sensitized Solar Cells

Shen

Fichou

Wang

2016

Chemistry An Asian Journal

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Quantum-dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSCs) are promising solar-energy-conversion devices, as low-cost alternatives to the prevailing photovoltaic technologies. Compared with molecular dyes, nanocrystalline quantum dot (QD) light absorbers exhibit higher molar extinction coefficients and a tunable photoresponse. However, the power-conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of QDSCs are generally below 9.5 %, far behind their molecular sensitizer counterparts (up to 13 %). These low PCEs have been attributed to a large free-energy loss during sensitizer regeneration, energy loss during the charge-carrier transport and transfer processes, and inefficient charge separation at the QD/electrolyte interfaces, and various interfacial engineering strategies for enhancing the PCE and cell stability have been reported. Herein, we review recent progress in the interfacial engineering of QDSCs and discuss future prospects for the development of highly efficient and stable QDSCs.

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“…Compared with traditional dyes employed in DSSCs, the strategic advantages of the use of low band gap QDs for light-trapping include widely tunable bandgap, broad spectral ranges, high extinction coefficients, and the expectation to obtain a considerable improvement in power conversion efficiency (PCE) by utilizing multiple exciton generation of QDs [1][2][3]. For most previously reported high-performance QDSCs, CoS was used as the CE, exhibiting remarkable catalytic activity [1,[4][5][6]. However, to the best of our knowledge, the pure CoS used as CE material alone is still very limited because of the relatively low electrical conductivity and poor stability for QDSCs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

CoS/Nanocarbon Composite as a Catalytic Counter Electrode for Improved Performance of Quantum Dot-Sensitized Solar Cells

Yang

Sun

Yang

et al. 2019

Journal of Nanomaterials

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CoS/nanocarbon (NC) composites were prepared via a one-pot hydrothermal method and were used as counter electrodes (CEs) in quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSCs). The CoS/nanocarbon (NC) composite thin film CE has been prepared via a one-pot hydrothermal method. Addition of NC to the solution before hydrothermal treatment led to a CoS/NC composite with a good dispersion of conducting NC. The nanoscaled CoS in the composite CE provides abundant catalytic sites, and the carbon particle framework also acts as highly conductive paths for fast charge transport from the counter electrode (highly catalytic CoS active sites) to the photoanode. The optimized CoS/NC composite CE showed a two-order decrease in the charge-transfer resistance, compared to the pure CoS CE. The TiO2/CdS/CdSe/ZnS-based QDSC using the optimized CoS/NC composite CE shows enhanced photovoltaic performance with a power conversion efficiency of 4.46% and good stability (94.8% retention after 100 h continuous illumination).

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

Cited by 42 publications

References 52 publications

Electronic Modulation of Nickel Disulfide toward Efficient Water Electrolysis

Electronic Modulation of Nickel Disulfide toward Efficient Water Electrolysis

Interfacial Engineering for Quantum‐Dot‐Sensitized Solar Cells

CoS/Nanocarbon Composite as a Catalytic Counter Electrode for Improved Performance of Quantum Dot-Sensitized Solar Cells

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