Titanium Nitride Nanoflower Buds as Pt-Free Counter Electrodes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

The nanostructure of titanium nitride was synthesized and investigated as a counter electrode (CE) to replace the conventional platinum CE for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Titanium nitride nanoflower buds (TiN NFBs) were successfully prepared by a simple and efficient method of ammonialization of hydrothermally prepared titanium dioxide nanobuds with mixed anatase and rutile phase. Titanium nitride, with its unique nanostructure, exhibits good surface property with a wide range of porosity distribution, which is attributed to the possible electrocatalytic active sites. The electrochemical studies performed show that TiN NFBs demonstrate high electrocatalytic activity toward the iodide/triiodide electrolyte and exhibit good charge transfer kinetics with low charge transfer resistance comparable to the performance of the platinum electrode. The photocurrent voltage characteristics of the TiN NFB CE assembled DSSC shows that it achieves a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.0%, which is very close to the PCE reached for the Pt CE based DSSC (7.4%). The 30 day stability study reveals the highly stable performance of the TiN NFB CE based DSSC and good corrosion resistance toward the iodide/triiodide redox electrolyte. Thus, the overall performance of the TiN NFB encourages further research to prepare different TiN nanostructures to replace the conventional costly Pt CE for large area DSSCs to reach the consumer market.

One-Step Synthesis of TiN/C Nanocomposites for the Sensitive Determination of Ofloxacin

“…Four well-resolved concentric diffuse rings and some bright spots are observed, suggesting the polycrystalline structure of TiN. 41 The TEM results corroborate the formation of a heterostructure between TiN nanoparticles and graphitic carbon.…”

“…The other doublet (458.5 eV and 464.1 eV) is related to Ti-O bonds resulting from the surface oxidation of TiN nanoparticles. 34,41 The N 1 s curve is deconvoluted into multiple peaks at 396.1, 396.8, 398.5 and 400.8 eV (Fig. 2c).…”

Titanium nitride (TiN) as a promising alternative to plasmonic metals: a comprehensive review of synthesis and applications

“…This PCE value is marginally equivalent to the PCE achieved by Pt-based CE (7.4%) in DSSCs. 229 The TiN NFBs showed excellent catalytic activity towards the I À /I 3 À electrolyte, favourable charge transport properties, and performance equivalent to the platinum electrode (see Fig. 19(a-c)).…”

Metal nitride-based nanostructures for electrochemical and photocatalytic hydrogen production

“…As suggested above, the conversion of metal oxides to MNs by heating in an ammonia atmosphere at moderately high temperatures is a popular method to produce MNs with different morphologies [ 68 , 69 ]. Recently, Tan et al [ 53 ] developed a strategy to form 3D tungsten nitrides (W 2 N 3 ) from tungsten oxide at high temperatures using ammonia as a nitrogen source.…”