Anchoring CoS on three-dimensional porous rGO thin films as efficient counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells
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Anchoring CoS on three-dimensional porous rGO thin films as efficient counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells Jun Liu1, Weifeng Yang1, Aixiang Wei1,2,* , Huajiang Zuo3, Weiwei Zhang1, Kangle Liu1, Zhen Liu1, Zhiming Xiao1, and Yu Zhao1 1
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional Soft Condensed Matter, School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, Guangdong, China 2 School of Information Science, Xinhua College of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510520, Guangdong, China 3 College of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Guangxi University of Science and Technology, Liuzhou 545006, Guangxi, China
Received: 21 September 2020
ABSTRACT
Accepted: 26 October 2020
Rational design of advanced cost-effective counter electrode (CE) is vital for the development of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Herein, we report a novel CoS/reduced graphene oxide (CoS/rGO) composite counter electrode via a facile and rapid microwave irradiation plus ion exchange method. CoS nanoparticles are strongly anchored on three-dimensional (3D) porous rGO thin films. Due to positive advantages including high catalytic properties, enhanced active area, and electrical conductivity, the DSSC based on CoS/rGO counter electrode is endowed with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 6.86%, superior to that based on sputtered Pt counter electrode (6.50%). Our results indicate that CoS/rGO composite thin film is a low-cost and highly efficient CE for DSSCs.
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Springer Science+Business
Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
1 Introduction Over the past decades, great attention has been focused on dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) due to their low cost, facile fabrication process, and high conversion efficiency [1–3]. It is known that a DSSC consists of four parts: photoanode [4, 5], dye [6, 7], electrolyte [8], and counter electrode [9]. Among them, the counter electrode (CE), as an important part of the DSSC, is generally composed of a conductive substrate and a catalytic material. The former
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https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-020-04765-x
is to collect electrons from external circuit and the latter is to catalyze the reaction from I3- to I-. It has been verified that the performance of the CE catalytic material can directly affect the cell efficiency. Previously, a relatively high conversion efficiency can be achieved by using noble metal platinum (Pt) as the CE of DSSC. However, the high price and scarcity of Pt-based materials greatly limit their industrialization in DSSC. Therefore, many cost-effective non-Pt alternatives have been explored, such as carbon materials [10], transition metal oxide [11], sulfide [12],
J Mater Sci: Mater Electron
nitride [13], selenide [14], and conductive polymers [15]. Typically, transition metal sulfide (TMS) is an ideal CE material owing to abundant resources, easy fabrication, and high catalytic activity [16]. In the TMS family, cobalt sulfide (CoS) is a potential candidate with low cost and excell
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