Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Mar 14;12(6):961.
doi: 10.3390/nano12060961.

Enhanced Performance of Carbon-Selenide Composite with La0.9Ce0.1NiO3 Perovskite Oxide for Outstanding Counter Electrodes in Platinum-Free Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Arnauld Robert Tapa  1   2 , Wanchun Xiang  1   3 , Senwei Wu  1 , Bin Li  1 , Qiufen Liu  1 , Mingfeng Zhang  1 , Marzieh Ghadamyari  4 , Francis Verpoort  4   5 , Jichao Wang  4 , Albert Trokourey  2 , Xiujian Zhao  1
Affiliations

Enhanced Performance of Carbon-Selenide Composite with La0.9Ce0.1NiO3 Perovskite Oxide for Outstanding Counter Electrodes in Platinum-Free Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Arnauld Robert Tapa et al. Nanomaterials (Basel). .

Abstract

For large-scale applications, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) require the replacement of the scarce platinum (Pt)-based counter electrode (CE) with efficient and cheap alternatives. In this respect, low-cost perovskite oxides (ABO3) have been introduced as promising additives to composite-based CEs in Pt-free DSSCs. Herein, we synthesized composites from La0.9Ce0.1NiO3 (L) perovskite oxide and functionalized-multiwall-carbon-nanotubes wrapped in selenides derived from metal-organic-frameworks (f-MWCNT-ZnSe-CoSe2, "F"). L and F were then mixed with carbon black (CB) in different mass ratios to prepare L@CB, F@CB, and L@F@CB composites. The electrochemical analysis revealed that the L@F@CB composite with a mass ratio of 1.5:3:1.5 exhibits better electrocatalytic activity than Pt. In addition, the related DSSC reached a better PCE of 7.49% compared to its Pt-based counterpart (7.09%). This improved performance is the result of the increase in the oxygen vacancy by L due to the replacement of La with Ce in its structure, leading to more active sites in the L@F@CB composites. Moreover, the F@CB composite favors the contribution to the high electrical conductivity of the hybrid carbon nanotube-carbon black, which also offers good stability to the L@F@CB CE by not showing any obvious change in morphology and peak-to-peak separation even after 100 cyclic voltammetry cycles. Consequently, the corresponding L@F@CB-based device achieved enhanced stability. Our work demonstrates that L@F@CB composites with a low cost are excellent alternatives to Pt CE in DSSCs.

Keywords: carbon materials; counter electrode; metal selenides; metal-organic-frameworks; perovskite oxide.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Typical SEM images of FTO/L (a), FTO/F (b), FTO/CB (c), and FTO/L@CB (d), FTO/F@CB (e), FTO/2-L@F@CB (f), and FTO/Pt (g).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Typical TEM images of L (a–c,i,j), and F (d–f,k,l).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms (a,b), pore size distributions of L, F, CB, L@CB, F@CB and 2-L@F@CB (c,d).
Figure 4
Figure 4
CV plots of various CEs at 50 mV.s−1 (a); EIS Nyquist plots (b); Tafel polarization plots (c); J–V plots of DSSCs using Pt, CB, L, F, L@CB, F@CB, 1-L@F@CB, 2-L@F@CB, and 3-L@F@CB based CEs (d).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Device stability test under illumination for DSSC made of 2-L@F@CB CE. (a) Voc, (b) Jsc, (c) FF, and (d) PCE.
Figure 6
Figure 6
CV plots at 50 mV·s−1 scan rate (a); EIS Nyquist plots (b); Tafel polarization plots (c); DSSC J–V plots (d) of 2-L@F@CB CEs with different film thicknesses.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kakiage K., Aoyama Y., Yano T., Oya K., Fujisawa J.-I., Hanaya M. Highly-efficient dye-sensitized solar cells with collaborative sensitization by silyl-anchor and carboxy-anchor dyes. Chem. Commun. 2015;51:15894–15897. doi: 10.1039/C5CC06759F. - DOI - PubMed
    1. O’Regan B., Grätzel M. A low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell based on dye-sensitized colloidal TiO2 films. Nature. 1991;353:737–740. doi: 10.1038/353737a0. - DOI
    1. Ye M., Wen X., Wang M., Iocozzia J., Zhang N., Lin C., Lin Z. Recent advances in dye-sensitized solar cells: From photoanodes, sensitizers and electrolytes to counter electrodes. Mater. Today. 2015;18:155–162. doi: 10.1016/j.mattod.2014.09.001. - DOI
    1. Wu J., Lan Z., Lin J., Huang M., Huang Y., Fan L., Luo G., Lin Y., Xie Y., Wei Y. Counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2017;46:5975–6023. doi: 10.1039/C6CS00752J. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Liu T., Yu K., Gao L., Chen H., Wang N., Hao L., Li T., He H., Guo Z. A graphene quantum dot decorated SrRuO3 mesoporous film as an efficient counter electrode for high-performance dye-sensitized solar cells. J. Mater. Chem. A. 2017;5:17848–17855. doi: 10.1039/C7TA05123A. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources