Graphene-Based Material for Fabrication of Electrodes in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Graphene-based materials have been widely studied for the fabrication of electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The use of graphene in the cathode is to reduce the amount of platinum (Pt), which in turn is expected to reduce the production cost of DSSCs. Additionally, in the structure of cathode, graphene acts as a supporting material to reduce the particle sizes of Pt and helps to maintain the high efficiency of DSSCs. For anodes, graphene can provide a more effective electron transfer process, resulting in the improvement of efficiency of DSSCs. In this chapter, the use of graphene-based materials for fabrication of cathodes and anodes in DSSCs, including platinum/reduced graphene oxide composite (Pt/rGO) and zinc oxide/reduced graphene oxide composite (ZnO/rGO) is discussed. The fabricated DSSCs were tested using current density-voltage (J-V) curves to evaluate the efficiency. The results of efficiency demonstrate that Pt/rGO is the potential material for fabrication of cathode in DSSCs, which helps to reduce the amount of Pt and maintain the high efficiency. The efficiency values of DSSCs fabricated from ZnO/rGO anodes show that the incorporation of reduced graphene oxide in the ZnO could improve the performance of DSSCs.