In response to the urgent renewable energy needs of modern society and emerging environmental concerns, it is very important to develop novel inexpensive and environmentally friendly energy conversion and storage systems. Mesoscopic dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) have recently emerged as a credible alternative to solid-state p-n junction photovoltaic devices, primarily due to the greatest potential to generate electricity on resource-abundant raw materials and energy-saving device processing. The most common catalyst on counter electrode is Pt nanoparticles, which show high catalytic behavior with the I-/I3- redox system. However, Pt is expensive and the preparation of Pt film on counter electrode often requires high-vacuum equipment (for instance, sputtering or thermal evaporation). In this talk, we will discuss the applications of two kinds of carbon nanomaterials based hybrid structures as Pt-free cathode in DSCs as the low-cost, high efficient count electrode for future DSCs. First, we will demonstrate a successful implementation of graphene-like film and bamboo-like multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as the counter electrode in the traditional I-/I3-  redox couples system. Secondly, a novel seamless 3-dimensional vertically aligned few-walled carbon nanotubes (VAFWCNTs)/graphene on Ni foil scaffold was implemented as the transparent conductive oxide and Pt-free counter electrodes for DSCs. The graphene and VAFWCNTs layers were in-situ grown on the Ni foil, avoiding any transfer process that is recognized to be detrimental for the interfacial electron transfer. These highly catalytically active carbon nanomaterials based counter electrodes are believed to be a versatile candidate for further improvement of the power conversion efficiency for future DSC applications.

Applications of carbon nanomaterials based hybrid structures in dye-sensitized solar cells

247th National Meeting (2014)

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