High-Performance Molybdenum Diselenide Electrodes Used in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells and Supercapacitors

Metal dichalcogenide has a layered structure, which is endowed with versatile and tunable photoelectrochemical properties. In this paper, molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2) is synthesized by the solvothermal method, and the as-synthesized MoSe2 shows microsphere hierarchical architecture composed of 2-D nanosheets. The electrochemical characterization indicates that the MoSe2 electrode has lower resistances and better electro-catalytic activity toward triiodide/iodide redox reaction than the traditional Pt electrode. Using the MoSe2 as a counter electrode in the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), a high-power-conversion efficiency of 9.80% is achieved, outperforming the DSSC-based traditional Pt counter electrode (8.17%). Moreover, using the MoSe2 as an electrode in the supercapacitor, it displays a high specific capacitance of 272 F.g(-1).