Economical and effective sulfide catalysts for dye-sensitized solar cells as counter electrodes

Wu, Mingxing; Wang, Yudi; Lin, Xiao; Yu, Naisen; Wang, Liang; Wang, Linlin; Hagfeldt, Anders; Ma, Tingli

doi:10.1039/c1cp22819f

Cited by 309 publications

(192 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…95 However, no theoretical calculation of MoS 2 as a CE material has been available thus far. The application of MoS 2 and WS 2 as efficient electrocatalysts in the DSCs was first published by Wu et al 96 in 2011, and the obtained PCEs were 7.59 and 7.73%, respectively, which is comparable with the Pt CE. In our study, we directly grew a semi-transparent ultrathin MoS 2 nanostructured film on an FTO substrate using a hydrazine-assisted hydrothermal method and used it as a CE in the DSCs.…”

Section: Metal Sulfidessupporting

confidence: 62%

The search for efficient electrocatalysts as counter electrode materials for dye-sensitized solar cells: mechanistic study, material screening and experimental validation

et al. 2015

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In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the studies on effective energy-conversion devices, including photovoltaics and fuel cells, which aim to alleviate the enormous energy demand, as well as the environmental pollution issues associated with current power consumption. Among these devices, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) have received significant attention owing to their simple fabrication procedure, cost-effectiveness and high-power-conversion efficiency. The counter electrode (CE) of the DSCs is an important component and generally uses platinum as its benchmark material, the high cost and scarcity of which have limited the broad application of the DSCs. Thus, substantial effort has been devoted to seek active CE materials with low cost, high electrocatalytic activity and excellent stability. Nevertheless, this is generally achieved via a 'trial-and-error' method owing to the lack of information on the mechanism of the electrocatalytic reaction on the CE's surface. This report summarizes the recent advances in the mechanistic study of the interfacial electrocatalytic reaction on CE materials, as well as the establishment of a rational screening protocol for efficient CE materials. Furthermore, several outstanding CE materials developed via this protocol have been reviewed. The demonstrated combined approach can be extended to the studies of other essential electrocatalytic reactions. NPG Asia Materials (2015) 7, e226; doi:10.1038/am.2015.121; published online 20 November 2015 INTRODUCTIONThe global demand for energy has significantly increased, and this trend is predicted to continue in the future. Solar energy, which is one of the most abundant and least-utilized clean energy sources, demonstrates great potential to satisfy the future global energy consumption. A photovoltaic (PV) system or solar cell, which directly converts sunlight into electricity, has attracted significant attention in the academic and industrial fields. Although the current PV market is dominated by silicon-based solar cells, several studies have been performed to develop new-generation solar cells with a higher efficiency and a lower price. Among them, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) exhibit a promising future owing to their ease of fabrication, low-cost and high sunlight-harvesting efficiency. [1][2][3][4] In typical single p-n junction PV devices, semiconducting materials are used to generate, separate and transport charge carriers (electrons and holes) to transmit electricity under solar illumination. However, in the DSCs, photoelectrons are generated by separate photosensitive dyes and

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Section: Metal Sulfidessupporting

confidence: 62%

The search for efficient electrocatalysts as counter electrode materials for dye-sensitized solar cells: mechanistic study, material screening and experimental validation

et al. 2015

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“…More recently, Wu et al proposed molybdenum sulfide (MoS 2 ) and tungsten sulfide (WS 2 ) as viable counter electrode catalysts for triiodide-to-iodide as well as disulfide-to-thiolate reduction in DSCs and one could observe a significant improvement in FF in the latter case. 10 The phenomenon of a low fill factor with sulfur-functionalized redox mediators is most likely to result from slow catalytic reduction of the oxidized species at the standard platinum-loaded counter electrode. The slow electron transfer leads to a high interfacial charge transfer resistance limiting the fill factor of the device.…”

Section: Broader Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of the counter electrode on the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells using a disulfide/thiolate redox electrolyte

Burschka

Brault

Ahmad

et al. 2012

Energy Environ. Sci.

142

102

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Strong scientific interests focus on the investigation of iodine-free redox couples for their application in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Recently, a disulfide/thiolate-based redox electrolyte has been proposed as a valuable alternative to the conventional I 3 À /I À system due to its transparent and noncorrosive nature. In the work presented herein, we systematically studied the influence of different counter electrode materials on the photovoltaic performance of DSCs employing this promising organic redox electrolyte. Our investigations focused on understanding the importance of electrocatalytic activity and surface area of the electroactive material on the counter electrode, comparing the conventional platinum to cobalt sulfide (CoS) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT). Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy has been used to study in detail the interfacial charge transfer reaction at the counter electrode. By using a high surface area PEDOT-based counter electrode, we finally achieved an unprecedented power conversion efficiency of 7.9% under simulated AM1.5G solar irradiation (100 mW cm À2 ) which, to the best of our knowledge, represents the highest efficiency that has so far been reported for an organic redox couple.

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“…The conventional CEs are magnetron sputtering deposited or thermally decomposed Pt on rigid FTO substrates, which have shown remarkable electrocatalytic activity towards the reduction of I À 3 . But in view of the high cost and limited reserves, many inexpensive transition metal sulfides, such as CoS, NiS, MoS 2 and SnS 2 have been exploited as catalysts due to their outstanding catalytic performance, similar to Pt [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Among sulfides, NiS exhibits great potential as the CE of DSSCs [5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

NiS nanoparticles anchored on reduced graphene oxide to enhance the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells

Zuo

Zhang

Yang

et al. 2015

J Mater Sci: Mater Electron

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NiS nanoparticles anchored on reduced graphene oxide (NiS/RGO) composites were synthesized by a facile solvothermal route and served as the efficient counter electrodes (CE) for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The electrochemical measurements indicate that the NiS/RGO nanocomposites electrode possesses the lowest charge transfer resistance and highest electrocatalytic activity among all of the electrodes used RGO, NiS and NiS/RGO. The power conversion efficiency of DSSC fabricated with the NiS/RGO CE achieves 7.67 %, which is observably higher than that of using pristine RGO counter electrode (2.92 %) or NiS counter electrode (6.25 %) and also superior to Pt CE (7.21 %) under the same test conditions.

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Economical and effective sulfide catalysts for dye-sensitized solar cells as counter electrodes

Cited by 309 publications

References 27 publications

The search for efficient electrocatalysts as counter electrode materials for dye-sensitized solar cells: mechanistic study, material screening and experimental validation

The search for efficient electrocatalysts as counter electrode materials for dye-sensitized solar cells: mechanistic study, material screening and experimental validation

Influence of the counter electrode on the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells using a disulfide/thiolate redox electrolyte

NiS nanoparticles anchored on reduced graphene oxide to enhance the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells

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