Journal
ELECTROCHIMICA ACTA
Volume 229, Issue -, Pages 361-370Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2017.01.145
Keywords
CoNi alloy; carbon nanocages; metal-organic framework; counter electrode; dye-sensitized solar
Categories
Funding
- LaSPACE, LSU Economic Development Assistantship
- Chevron Innovative Research Fund (CIRS)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The commercialization of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) has been severely hindered by high cost and scarcity of Pt as counter electrode (CE). Up to date, the design of low-cost Pt-free CE materials with an ideal combination of high electrical conductivity, excellent catalytic activity and satisfactory long-term electrochemical stability still poses challenges to researchers. In this work, we have developed novel CoNi alloy@carbon nanotubes embedded carbon nanocages (CoNi@CNTs-C) as the CE of DSSCs for the first time, by applying Co/Ni bimetallic metal organic framework (MOF) as the template. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of DSSCs can be maximized by simply optimizing the ratio of Ni2+/Co2+ precursor ratio during the synthesis. As a result, the DSSC based on CoNi@CNTs-C-200 CE with a Co/Ni atomic ratio of 9:1 exhibits a remarkable PCE of 9.04%, showing a, similar to 15% enhancement compared to that of Pt CE (7.88%). Notably, the CoNi@CNTs-C-200 CE also demonstrates excellent long-term electrochemical stability over 300 cyclic voltammetry cycles, which is much superior to that of Conventional Pt CE. Thus, the CoNi@CNTs-C demonstrates a great potential as a low-cost, stable and efficient CE material for next-generation DSSCs. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available