Hydrothermal synthesis of the composited WS2-W5O14-MWCNTs for high performance dye-sensitized solar cell counter electrodes

WS2 and W18O49/W5O14 (WS (2) -W (18) O (49) /W (5) O (14) ) powders were synthesized using a hydrothermal reaction of microsized WO3 particles in a HCl + Na2S center dot 9 center dot H2O solution. The resulting WS (2) -W (18) O (49) /W (5) O (14) powders were used as a catalyst in a counter electrode of a dye-sensitized solar cell with an efficiency of 3.37%. To enhance the DSSC's performance, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) was added to the aforementioned hydrothermal reaction producing WS (2) -W (5) O (14) -MWCNTs composite, which can enhance an efficiency of up to 7.44%, comparable to that of Pt DSSCs (7.53%). This outstanding performance of the WS (2) -W (5) O (14) -MWCNTs based DSSCs is attributed to high electrocatalytic activity and low charge-transfer resistance at the counter electrode and electrolyte interface at the WS (2) -W (5) O (14) -MWCNTs electrode. This facile and cost-effective fabrication of the composited WS (2) -W (5) O (14) -MWCNTs CE could lead to applications in commercial DSSC devices.