Ultrasonic spray pyrolysis-assisted preparation of CoS for stable, uniform and efficient counter electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells. (1st September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lu, Shuang; Wang, Yinglin; Wu, Chunxia; Liu, Yichun; Zhang, Xintong
• Is Part Of: Solar energy. Volume 189(2019)
• Page Start: 398
• Page End: 403
• Publication Date: 2019-09-01
• Subjects: Ultrasonic spray pyrolysis -- Cobalt sulfide -- Counter electrode -- Dye-sensitized solar cells; Solar energy -- Periodicals; Solar engines -- Periodicals; 621.47
• DOI: 10.1016/j.solener.2019.07.074
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0038-092X

Abstract

Highlights: Ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP) were used to prepare CoS counter electrodes (CEs) of DSSCs. High-efficiency and stable CoS CEs were fabricated. Large-scale CoS CEs present outstanding uniformity of electrocatalytic activity. Flexible CoS CEs exhibit good bending durability. Abstract: Searching for large-scale, non-Pt, efficient counter electrode (CE) materials is still a key challenge to realize the applications of high-performance dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Herein, we report the spray fabrication of stable, uniform and efficient CoS counter electrode at temperature no higher than 100 °C from CoS nanoparticles prepared by the ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP) method. The as-fabricated USP-assisted CoS CEs exhibit comparable electrocatalytic activity to the traditional thermolyzed Pt CE, generating a power conversion efficiency of 8.6% for unoptimized DSSCs. This CoS CEs also exhibited prominent electrochemical and mechanical stability, uniform electrocatalytic activity at the size of 10 × 10 cm, and good bending durability when deposited on flexible ITO/PEN conductive substrates, manifesting the merits of this USP-based strategy for the development of high-performance non-Pt electrocatalysts.