Highly efficient bio-based porous carbon hybridized with tungsten carbide as counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cell. Issue 10 (July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Yongwei; Yun, Sining; Wang, Ziqi; Zhang, Yangliang; Wang, Chen; Arshad, Asim; Han, Feng; Si, Yiming; Fang, Wen
• Is Part Of: Ceramics international. Volume 46:Issue 10(2020)Part B
• Page Start: 15812
• Page End: 15821
• Publication Date: 2020-07
• Subjects: Counter electrode -- Electrocatalyst -- Bio-based carbon -- Tungsten carbide -- Dye-sensitized solar cell; Ceramics -- Periodicals; Céramique industrielle -- Périodiques; Ceramics; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 666
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ceramint.2020.03.128
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0272-8842

Abstract

Abstract: Bio-based porous carbon (CMA and CTA ) are successfully prepared from waste carton via microwave-assisted activation (MA) and two-step chemical activation (TA) methods, respectively. The as-prepared CTA sample exhibits higher specific surface area (824.16 m 2 g −1 ) and larger total pore volume (0.71 cm 3 g −1 ), as compared with those of the CMA sample (655.36 m 2 g −1 and 0.62 cm 3 g −1, correspondingly). The higher specific surface area could provide more catalytic sites; thus, the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) assembled with a CTA counter electrode (CE) deliver a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 6.76%, surpass the CMA -based DSSC (6.19%). Further, tungsten carbide (WC) are introduced into CTA and CMA to form hybrid catalysts (WC/CTA and WC/CMA, respectively) in order to improve their catalytic activities. Benefitting from the synergistic effect of bio-based porous carbon and WC, the DSSCs with WC/CTA and WC/CMA CEs exhibit superior PCE values of 7.32% and 6.85%, respectively, close to Pt (7.51%). This work provides an effective strategy for synthesizing low-cost and high-performance hybrid catalysts from bio-based carbon to achieve resource utilization of biomass waste in new energy fields. Graphical abstract: Image 1