NiS modified porous cotton-carbon fiber cloth with high conductivity and excellent electrocatalytic performance for DSSCs

Here we show a flexible porous cotton-carbon fiber cloth (PCC) film prepared by carbonizing natural cotton fiber cloth in argon atmosphere. This material not only has the flexibility and lightness of common carbon fiber, but also has good electrocatalytic activity and high conductivity, which is due to its onedimensional cotton-carbon fiber skeleton with closely connected carbon particles, porous structure and large specific surface area. To improve the electrocatalytic performance of PCC, a layer of NiS was electrodeposited on the surface of PCC to form NiS/PCC electrode, which was used as high performance counter electrode of DSSC to instead of traditional FTO/Pt electrode. The photoelectric conversion efficiency of NiS/PCC reaches 6.80%, even slightly higher than that of Pt/FTO electrode (6.69%). In addition, this kind of material is cheap, flexible and light, all of which make it a potential low cost counter electrode material for large-scale application in DSSCs. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The flexible porous cotton-carbon fiber cloth (PCC) film shows good electrocatalytic activity and high conductivity. The NiS/PCC electrode performs well in DSSC, with a photoelectric conversion efficiency of 6.80%, surpassing the traditional FTO/Pt electrode. This inexpensive, flexible, and lightweight material has potential for large-scale application.