Honeycomb-like CoS Counter Electrodes for Transparent Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

In this study, a transparent CoS counter electrode (CE) fabricated by potentiodynamic deposition was incorporated in a Pt-free dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The CoS CE fabricated by potentiodynamic deposition was observed with high transparency and honeycomblike morphology. Thus it exhibited a low charge-transfer resistance of similar to 1.45 Omega cm(2) in comparison with a sputtered-Pt CE (similar to 2.03 Omega cm(2)). The DSSC assembled with the CoS CE showed a superior photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 6.01% to that with the sputtered-Pt CE (5.71%) due to the higher photocurrent density (14.17 mA cm(-2)) under full sunlight illumination (100 mW cm(-2), AM 1.5G). (C) 2011 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/1.3533917] All rights reserved.