Modified conducting polymer films having high catalytic activity for use as counter electrodes in rigid and flexible dye-sensitized solar cells

We report replacing platinum based counter electrode (CE) in dye-sensitized,solar cell (DSSC) with conducting polymer based CE. Conducting polymers are prepared through mixing poly-(3,4 ethylenedioxythio phene):poly-(styrene sulfonic acid) (PEDOT:PSS) with Triton. The polymer mixture is spin-coated on indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass substrate and ITO-coated polyethylene naphthalate plastic substrate to form a CE for use in both rigid and flexible DSSCs, respectively. The PEDOT:PSS-Triton polymer not only is transparent (up to 93%) and highly conductive but also exhibits better catalytic activity than the expensive platinum. The DSSC fabricated using the PEDOT:PSS-Triton conducting polymer CE shows better performance or higher power conversion efficiency than that using Pt-based CE, either rigid or flexible. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.