Nitrogen-doped carbon and iron carbide nanocomposites as cost-effective counter electrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells

Hierarchical nanocomposites of iron carbide (Fe3C) encaged in nitrogen-doped carbon (N-C) were prepared by using a simple carbothermal reduction of iron(II) oxalate (FeC2O4) nanowires in the presence of cyanamide (NH2CN) at 600 degrees C. Such Fe3C@N-C nanocomposites delivered fair electrocatalytic activity for the I3(-)/I- redox reaction. As a result, when explored as cost-effective counter electrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells, an efficiency of 7.36% was achieved, which was comparable to that of the cell with a Pt-FTO counter electrode (7.15%) under the same experimental conditions. The good electrochemical performance is attributed to the synergistic effect of the combination of N-C and Fe3C and the one dimensional configuration, which endows the nanocomposites with more interfacial active sites and improved electron transfer efficiency for the reduction of I3(-)/I-