Enhanced Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells with Catalytic Carbon Aerogel Counter Electrodes. (20th August 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chen, Haijun; Liu, Tao; Wang, Ning; Zhao, Lijuan; Zhao, Qinghong; Ren, Jing; He, Hongcai; Lin, Hong
• Is Part Of: Electrochimica acta. Volume 174(2015)
• Page Start: 871
• Page End: 874
• Publication Date: 2015-08-20
• Subjects: Carbon aerogel -- Platinum-free -- Counter electrode -- Dye-sensitized -- Solar cells; Electrochemistry -- Periodicals; Electrochemistry, Industrial -- Periodicals; 541.37
• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2015.06.082
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-4686

Abstract

Abstract: Carbon aerogel (CA) with ultra-low density and three dimensional network nanostructures is investigated as the electrocatalyst for tri-iodide (I3 − ) reduction in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The catalytic properties of CA and platinum (Pt) counter electrodes are analyzed and compared by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and Tafel polarization measurements. The devices applying CA counter electrode exhibit a lower charge-transfer resistance (1.60 Ω cm 2 ) and larger diffusion coefficient (3.39 × 10 −6 cm 2 s −1 ) compared to the devices with conventional Pt counter electrode. As a new kind of porous carbon materials, CA counter electrode has high active surface area and conductance. These factors improve the power conversion efficiency ( η ) up to 8.04%, which is better than that of the reference Pt based DSSC (6.79%). This paper indicates that carbon aerogel with good catalytic activity can potentially be used as a promising alternative to the expensive Pt counter electrode in a high-performance DSSC device design.