Preparation of PEDOT/Pt Composite Counter Electrodes by Electrochemical Methods for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have received worldwide attention in the past twenty years as a promising alternative to classical solar cells Among the DSSCs components the counter electrode is vital to receive electrons from the external circuit and catalyze the triiodide reduction in the electrolyte Careful preparation of the CEs can enhance the catalytic activity and electrode stability related to the electrolyte utilized in most DSSCs In this study poly(3 4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and platinum (Pt)-based composite was prepared on the conductive substrate and utilized as the counter electrodes for the DSSCs applications The composite electrodes were prepared using various methods such as constant current constant potential cyclic voltammetry and sputtering methods to obtain the best efficiency Among these the counter electrodes prepared using the constant potential (PEDOT) and cyclic voltammetry methods (Pt) had shown high performance in DSSCs By using these counter electrode high efficiencies 8 97 % was achieved for the cells with Acetonitrile (ACN) based iodide liquid electrolytes under one-sun condition The cells using 3-methoxypropionitrile (MPN) - based iodide electrolyte had obtained a high energy conversion efficiency of 15 72 % under room light illumination (200 lux) This efficiency was higher than that of the DSSCs using only Pt-based counter electrode (14 86%) This was mainly due to the decrease in the charge transfer resistance at the counter electrode/electrolyte interface and Warburg diffusion resistance of the corresponding DSSCs

Date of Award	2020
Original language	English
Supervisor	Yuh-Lang Lee (Supervisor)