Abstract
Conventional platinum (Pt) or emerging materials for the counter electrodes (CEs) of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been fabricated on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate. In this study, carbon paper with three-dimensional (3D) carbon fiber networks, which is highly porous, but has sufficient space for efficient transportation of electrolytes, is used in replace of the conventional heavy, rigid and expensive FTO/glass substrate in DSSC CEs. To prove the advantages of these highly conductive carbon paper electrodes, a thin poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) film is uniformly coated on the surface of 3D carbon paper via a chemical polymerization method. The catalytic properties of the PEDOT/carbon paper as the CE in a DSSC are studied using cyclic voltammetry, J-V, and IPCE measurements. Interestingly, the PEDOT/carbon paper CE exhibits better functionality as a CE for tri-iodide reduction as compared to conventional Pt/FTO-based CEs. The controlled DSSC with a PEDOT/carbon paper CE exhibits a power conversion efficiency of 8.05% under 100 mW·cm-2 illumination, which is higher than that of conventional DSSCs with standard Pt/FTO CEs (7.41%).
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 164-168 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Electrochimica Acta |
Volume | 137 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2014 Aug 10 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the NRF of Korea Grant funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (NRF-2009-C1AAA001-2009-0094157, NRF-2013R1A2A1A09014038, 2009-0092950, 2011-0006268, 2011-0030254). J.H.P. acknowledges the support from the MKE (20123010010070). H. Kim and G. Veerappan contributed equally to this work.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Chemical Engineering(all)
- Electrochemistry