In Situ Growth of Co<sub>0.85</sub>Se and Ni<sub>0.85</sub>Se on Conductive Substrates as High-Performance Counter Electrodes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Gong, Feng; Wang, Hong; Xu, Xin; Zhou, Gang; Wang, Zhongsheng

doi:10.1021/ja303034w

Cited by 739 publications

(523 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Two pairs of oxidation/reduction peaks are observed in every cyclic voltammogram, in which the left one is corresponding to the redox reaction of I 3 − /I − . As generally accepted, a lower peak-to-peak voltage (V pp ) separation indicates a higher catalytic activity for the counter electrode [20,21]. The V pp reduces monotonically from 0.62 to 0.40 V, indicating continuously enhanced catalytic activities of the hybrid fibers with the increasing platinum contents (inset in Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Synthesis and photovoltaic application of platinum-modified conducting aligned nanotube fiber

2015

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Platinum-modified carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers with controlled platinum weight percentages were synthesized via an electrochemical deposition method. Platinum nanoparticles can be uniformly deposited on the surface of the aligned CNTs in the fiber, which possesses an efficient improved catalytic activity in the reduction of I3 − /I − compared with other fiber materials such as a carbon fiber without the aligned nanostructure. The hybrid CNT fiber was further used as a counter electrode to fabricate fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). A maximal power conversion efficiency of 8.10% was achieved, compared with that of 4.91% for a bare aligned CNT fiber and 5.50% for a platinum-modified carbon fiber as the counter electrode under the same condition.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Synthesis and photovoltaic application of platinum-modified conducting aligned nanotube fiber

2015

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“…[ 42 ] This value is smaller nearly by 1% to those of the Co 0.85 Se ( E ff = 9.40%) and reduced graphene ( E ff = 9.54%). [ 57,58 ] To the best of our knowledge, these are the best two Pt-free counter electrodes showing the highest power conversion effi ciency. [ 49,57,58 ] Based on the reports of metal chalcogenide counter electrodes, it is worthy to investigate the electrocatalytic activity of the NiS as a model MS fi lm for DSSC counter electrode prepared by the proposed protocol.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Revisiting Metal Sulfide Semiconductors: A Solution‐Based General Protocol for Thin Film Formation, Hall Effect Measurement, and Application Prospects

Shinde

Patil

Cho

et al. 2015

Adv Funct Materials

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5739wileyonlinelibrary.com deposition method, which is facile, benign, and which can deposit a uniform MS thin fi lms is highly desirable. Although various available techniques such as chemical vapor deposition, [ 9,10 ] atomic layer deposition, [ 11,12 ] molecular beam epitaxy, [ 13,14 ] electrodeposition, [ 7,15 ] successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction, [ 16,17 ] vapor sublimation, [ 18 ] etc., are able to produce thin fi lms of MS, they lack generality or need sophisticated instrumentation, and are complicated. In this context, chemical bath deposition is inarguably the simplest method for thin fi lm deposition. Generally, a suitable complexing agent and pH regulating agents are added in order to avoid spontaneous precipitation in an aqueous bath, which makes the process complicated due to extremely critical optimization for concentration of complexing agents and pH adjustment for an individual MS case. [ 4,[19][20][21][22] As a result, development of MS fi lms by solution-based method has often been a case of trial-and-error with poor reproducibility, which remained as an unexplored research fi eld yet in material science and technology. In order to tackle the above problems in aqueous solution, the fi lm deposition reaction is carried out in ethanol solution without the use of any complexing and/or pH-regulating agents. This protocol relies on dissolution of metal salts and thioacetamide in ethanol and heating the solutions at 70 °C. Although very few reports on MS fi lm deposition from nonaqueous solution has been reported, [ 23,24 ] no general protocol is available that can be applied overall to deposit all variety of MS thin fi lms under similar conditions with good reproducibility. The proposed protocol is extremely simple and general, which can lay simple guidelines to fabricate almost all types of metal sulfi des uniformly over all area of the substrate, provided that the corresponding metal salts are soluble in ethanol. The as-deposited MS fi lms are highly crystalline even without thermal treatment. Interestingly, the fi lms can be directly grown on variety of conducting as well as non-conducting substrates such as glass, plastic, fl uorine doped tin oxide (FTO), Ti-foil, carbon paper, Whatman fi lter paper, etc., which can be of great technological importance. As an example of potential application of these thin fi lms, we demonstrate the use of NiS fi lm deposited on fl exible plastic substrates as FTO-free dual-functioned (electronic support + electrocatalytic) counter electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells Revisiting Metal Sulfi de

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“…It has been confirmed that platinum (Pt) is a superior CE material with excellent catalytic activity, high electrical conductivity and stability. Unfortunately, the disadvantages such as the high cost and low abundance greatly restrict the large-scale application of Pt in DSCs [6][7][8][9] . Thus, several Pt-free alternative materials have been explored as CEs in DSCs, such as carbon materials 8,10 , conductive organic polymers 6,11 and inorganic semiconductor materials including metal sulfides 12,13 , metal nitrides 14,15 , metal carbides 16,17 , metal oxides 18 and copper zinc tin sulfide 19 and so on.…”

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confidence: 99%

Rational screening low-cost counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

et al. 2013

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Dye-sensitized solar cells have attracted intense research attention owing to their ease of fabrication, cost-effectiveness and high efficiency in converting solar energy. Noble platinum is generally used as catalytic counter electrode for redox mediators in electrolyte solution. Unfortunately, platinum is expensive and non-sustainable for long-term applications. Therefore, researchers are facing with the challenge of developing low-cost and earthabundant alternatives. So far, rational screening of non-platinum counter electrodes has been hamstrung by the lack of understanding about the electrocatalytic process of redox mediators on various counter electrodes. Here, using first-principle quantum chemical calculations, we studied the electrocatalytic process of redox mediators and predicted electrocatalytic activity of potential semiconductor counter electrodes. On the basis of theoretical predictions, we successfully used rust (a-Fe 2 O 3 ) as a new counter electrode catalyst, which demonstrates promising electrocatalytic activity towards triiodide reduction at a rate comparable to platinum.

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In Situ Growth of Co_0.85Se and Ni_0.85Se on Conductive Substrates as High-Performance Counter Electrodes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Cited by 739 publications

References 30 publications

Synthesis and photovoltaic application of platinum-modified conducting aligned nanotube fiber

Synthesis and photovoltaic application of platinum-modified conducting aligned nanotube fiber

Revisiting Metal Sulfide Semiconductors: A Solution‐Based General Protocol for Thin Film Formation, Hall Effect Measurement, and Application Prospects

Rational screening low-cost counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

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In Situ Growth of Co0.85Se and Ni0.85Se on Conductive Substrates as High-Performance Counter Electrodes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Cited by 739 publications

References 30 publications

Synthesis and photovoltaic application of platinum-modified conducting aligned nanotube fiber

Synthesis and photovoltaic application of platinum-modified conducting aligned nanotube fiber

Revisiting Metal Sulfide Semiconductors: A Solution‐Based General Protocol for Thin Film Formation, Hall Effect Measurement, and Application Prospects

Rational screening low-cost counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

Contact Info

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In Situ Growth of Co_0.85Se and Ni_0.85Se on Conductive Substrates as High-Performance Counter Electrodes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells