FTO-free and low-Pt-loading counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells based on chemical bath deposited microstructured nickel layer

Several hundred Ni microspheres with a diameter of 2-3 mu m coated on frosted glass by chemical bath deposition are used as conductive substrates. Then, low-temperature immersion method (LTIM) and thermal decomposition method (TDM) are adopted respectively to deposit a thin Pt layer on Ni/glass and obtain Pt/Ni/glass electrodes which were employed as counter electrodes (CEs) for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). The results show that the DSC device with well-optimized LTIM-electrode achieves a remarkable increase of 0.69 and 7.78% in fill factor (FF) and power conversion efficiency (PCE) respectively. However, well-optimized TDM-electrode and traditional sputtered-Pt-electrode demonstrate an efficiency of 6.59% and 7.55% with a FF of 0.65 and 0.69, respectively. In addition, the LTIM-electrode has the lowest Pt loading of only 15.4 mu g/cm(2) among these three types of CEs. Thus, LTIM presents here paved the way for the preparation of excellent electrocatalytic CEs with extremely low Pt loading on F-doped SnO2 (FTO) free of Ni/glass substrates in DSCs, greatly reducing the cost of present photovoltaic devices. Furthermore, this LTIM can be applied to deposit other noble metals on a variety of flexible substrates, including polyethylene naphthalate or terephthalate. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study utilized chemical bath deposition to coat nickel microspheres on frosted glass as conductive substrates, followed by the deposition of a thin Pt layer using low-temperature immersion method and thermal decomposition method to obtain Pt/Ni/glass electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Results showed that the well-optimized LTIM-electrode achieved a significant increase in fill factor and power conversion efficiency for the DSC device.