Preparation and characterization of polyaniline film on stainless steel by electrochemical polymerization as a counter electrode of DSSC

Polyaniline (PANI) films were electrodeposited on stainless steel 304 (SS) from 0.5 M H2SO4 solution containing 0.3 M aniline by potentiostatic techniques to prepare a low cost and non-fragile counter electrode in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The compact layer, micro-particles, nanorods and fibrils were observed on the top of PANI films with different applied potentials (E-appl) by SEM. Then the conductivity and electrochemical test illuminated that a polyaniline film with the highest conductivity and best electrocatalytic activity for I-3(-)/I- reaction was electrodeposited at 1.0V E-appl. Finally, the photoelectric measurement showed that the energy conversion efficiency of DSSC with the PANI electrode was increased with the E-appl decreasing. And the efficiency of DSSC with PANI counter electrode at 1.0 V was higher than that with Pt electrode, owing to the loosely porous structure, high conductivity and excellent catalytic activity of PANI electrode. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.