In this presentation, we will discuss the applications of nanomaterials in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). First, we demonstrated successful implementation of vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (VASWCNTs) as the counter electrode in the traditional triiodide/iodide redox couples system. After studying various lengths of VASWCNTs, the VASWCNTs enabled DSCs with 34�m original length was found to be the optimal choice. Even under the suboptimal contacting condition between the FTO and VASWCNTs film, the highest conversion efficiencies of VASWCNTs-DSCs achieved 5.5%, which rivals that of the reference Pt DSSCs. Secondly, VASWCNTs also showed a much higher catalytic function than Pt in sulfide electrolyte DSSCs. Impressively, this device with VASWCNTs counter electrode demonstrates a high fill factor of 0.68 and power conversion efficiencies up to 5.25%, which is significant higher than 0.56 and 3.49% for that with a conventional Pt electrode. Finally, we will discuss some recent results on utilizing two-dimensional materials such as transition metal dichalcogenides as counter electrodes in DSCs.

Developing nanomaterials enabled dye-sensitized solar cells

245th National Meeting (2013)

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