Development of nanostructured transition metal derivatives based counter electrode materials for platinum free dye sensitized solar cell applications

Abstract

Since 1991, Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) have attracted great interest due to low cost, easy fabrication, environmental friendliness and high Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE). Many researchers and academicians are involved in developing this third generation solar cell. DSSC consists of photoanode, electrolyte and Counter Electrode (CE). Among the three components, the CE plays a crucial role in the regeneration of redox couple to satisfy the electron vacancy in the oxidized dye molecule. At present Pt is the widely used CE in DSSC. However it is expensive, corrosive in the I-/I3-electrolyte. This affects the large scale production. In order to develop cost effective DSSC, many Pt free materials have been developed. Among them, Transition Metal (TM)-derivatives have a variety of advantages, such as easy newlinesynthesis, low-cost, high conductivity and good electrocatalytic activity for reduction of I3 -. Especially, One Dimensional (1D) nanostructured materials have been widely used in various applications (supercapacitor, electrode materials, fuel cells) due to their unique physico chemical structural advantages. The synthesis and fabrication of various nanostructured TMderivatives have stimulated great interest in developing low cost and efficient Pt free 1D CE materials for DSSC. TM-derivatives were synthesized by chemical precipitation, hydrothermal, metal chloride-urea and one step chemical techniques. The first chapter presents the general renewable energy status, photovoltaic effect, history of the DSSC, working mechanism of DSSC, role newlineof each segment and significance of CE-electrolyte charge transfer dynamics. newline newline