Ultrasonically assisted preparation of molybdenum sulfide/graphitic carbon nitride nanohybrid as counter electrode material for dye-sensitized solar cell

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has special semiconducting properties which make it candiate for several catalytic processes. The subject of using g-C3N4 for electrochemical studies such as energy storage and conversion is important aspect which may be considered for further investigations. In this research, na-nostructured molybdenum sulfide (MoS2)/g-C3N4 was synthesized through sonochemical method and used as active material for the fabrication of counter electrode (CE) in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). MoS2 was synthesized by hydrothermal method and g-C3N4 was prepared using thiourea precursor through con-densation polymerization method. Then, two materials were combined under ultrasonic irradiation to obtain nanostructured MoS2/g-C3N4. For preparation of CE, the nanohybrid was coated onto fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass. Structural characterization of MoS2 /g-C3N4 nanohybrid was perfoemed uisng X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and trans-mission electron microscopy (TEM). The MoS2 /g-C3N4 CE displays higher current density and lower overpotentials for redox reactions of triiodide/iodide (I3 -/I-) than MoS2 and g-C3N4 CEs and has high cata-lytic activity and low charge transfer resistance. The photoanode was prepared using a transparent layer of 20 nm sized TiO2 nanoparticles and a reflective layer of 300 nm sized TiO2 particles pasted on FTO and then sensitized with immersion in 0.4 mM N719 dye. The fabricated DSSC based on MoS2/g-C3N4 CE was in-vestigated using J-V analysis under AM 1.5 irradiation (100 mW cm-2) and a maximum power conversion efficiency of 6.69% was obtained. The results showed that the idea of using g-C3N4 in the preparation of new hybrid materials for CEs can be considered to improve the performance of DSSC.(c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The research synthesized nanostructured MoS2/g-C3N4 through sonochemical method, which exhibited high catalytic activity and low charge transfer resistance in DSSC. The hybrid material showed potential for improving the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells.