Preparation of Carbon Nanotube/TiO2 Mesoporous Hybrid Photoanode with Iron Pyrite (FeS2) Thin Films Counter Electrodes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

Abstract

Multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)/TiO2 mesoporous networks can be employed as a new alternative photoanode in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). By using the MWCNT/TiO2 mesoporous as photoanodes in DSSC, we demonstrate that the MWCNT/TiO2 mesoporous photoanode is promising alternative to standard FTO/TiO2 mesoporous based DSSC due to larger specific surface area and high electrochemical activity. We also show that iron pyrite (FeS2) thin films can be used as an efficient counter electrode (CE), an alternative to the conventional high cost Pt based CE. We are able to synthesis FeS2 nanostructures utilizing a very cheap and easy hydrothermal growth route. MWCNT/TiO2 mesoporous based DSSCs with FeS2 CE achieved a high solar conversion efficiency of 7.27% under 100 mW cm−2 (AM 1.5G 1-Sun) simulated solar irradiance which is considerably (slightly) higher than that of A-CNT/TiO2 mesoporous based DSSCs with Pt CE. Outstanding performance of the FeS2 CE makes it a very promising choice among the various CE materials used in the conventional DSSC and it is expected to be used more often to achieve higher photon-to-electron conversion efficiencies.

Synergistic Effect of Plasmonic Gold Nanoparticles Decorated Carbon Nanotubes in Quantum Dots/TiO2 for Optoelectronic Devices

“…The CBM level value for TiO 2 and TiO 2 -Au:CNTs can be calculated from the VBM and bandgap values ( Figure S7c,d, Supporting Information). These results show that the bandgap of TiO 2 is slightly reduced with the incorporation of the Au-CNTs hybrid network consistent with the combined effect of Au [44] and CNTs, [45] and having negative shift (eV) in the CBM level. This shift has positive effect on electron injection rate from the CB of QDs to TiO 2 -Au:CNTs and suppresses the charge recombination during the device performance, which is consistent with transient PL spectroscopy and photovoltage decay measurements ( Figure 5).…”

Stabilized fabrication of anatase-TiO2/FeS2 (pyrite) semiconductor composite nanocrystals for enhanced solar light-mediated photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue

“…Similarly, 27 the spindle-like TiO 2 /CdS composite had a 3.5 times higher photocatalytic efficiency compared to pure CdS. Lee 31 and spheres 32 are reported earlier for applications with solar cells. In this report, we focused on the nanocrystals of composites of the TiO 2 /FeS 2 system for solar photocatalysis.…”

Origin of Performance Enhancement in TiO2‐Carbon Nanotube Composite Perovskite Solar Cells

“…This can also be observed as a visible darkening of the sol–gel color when compared to the control TiO 2 sol–gel solution as shown in Figure S4 in the Supporting Information. The inset in Figure a shows Tauc plots of the absorption spectra (shown in Figure S5a, Supporting Information) of TiO 2 and TiO 2 ‐CNT photoelectrodes, showing no significant shift in bandgap, although previous work has shown a significant redshift in absorption edge for TiO 2 ‐CNT (1.0 wt% CNT) composite materials . We attributed the lack of a shift in our devices to the fact that the amount of CNTs (0.1 wt%) was too small to have a noticeable effect.…”