Low cost platinum counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

A platinum counter-electrode (CE) was fabricated using spray-deposition method to provide efficient dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). This method uses over 86% less Pt compared to conventional Pt counter-electrode prepared by highly efficient sputter deposition method. The cost of this new counter-electrode is estimated to be only 0.11$/Wp. Moreover, this counter-electrode exhibits a high transparency, over 80% in visible and near infrared, along with high catalytic activity, comparable with that of the conventional Pt counter-electrode. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images show Pt nanoparticles varying in size from 5 nm to 70 nm distributed on transparent conducting oxide (TCO)/glass substrate. DSSCs based on this counter-electrode showed 6.17% power conversion efficiency, comparable to 6.46% efficiency of the corresponding reference DSSC with sputtered Pt counter-electrode.