Efficient p-type dye-sensitized solar cells with all-nano-electrodes: NiCo2S4 mesoporous nanosheet counter electrodes directly converted from NiCo2O4 photocathodes

Zhiwei Shi; Hao Lu; Qiong Liu; Fengren Cao; Jun Guo; Kaimo Deng; Liang Li

doi:10.1186/1556-276X-9-608

Efficient p-type dye-sensitized solar cells with all-nano-electrodes: NiCo2S4 mesoporous nanosheet counter electrodes directly converted from NiCo2O4 photocathodes

Nanoscale Res Lett. 2014 Nov 11;9(1):608. doi: 10.1186/1556-276X-9-608. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Zhiwei Shi¹, Hao Lu¹, Qiong Liu¹, Fengren Cao¹, Jun Guo², Kaimo Deng¹, Liang Li¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Physics, Optoelectronics and Energy & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, People's Republic of China.
² Analysis and Testing Center, Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

We report the successful growth of NiCo2S4 nanosheet films converted from NiCo2O4 nanosheet films on fluorine-doped tin oxide substrates by a low-temperature solution process. Low-cost NiCo2S4 and NiCo2O4 nanosheet films were directly used for replacing conventional Pt and NiO as counter electrodes and photocathodes, respectively, to construct all-nano p-type dye-sensitized solar cells (p-DSSCs) with high performance. Compared to Pt, NiCo2S4 showed higher catalytic activity towards the I(-)/I3 (-) redox in electrolyte, resulting in an improved photocurrent density up to 2.989 mA/cm(2), which is the highest value in reported p-DSSCs. Present p-DSSCs demonstrated a cell efficiency of 0.248 % that is also comparable with typical NiO-based p-DSSCs.

Keywords: Counter electrodes; Dye-sensitized solar cells; Nanosheets; Ternary sulfides; p-type.