Mesoporous Carbon Counter Electrode For Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

摘要

1.Introduction Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) have attracted much attention and have been considered as a credible alternative to other thin-film photovotaic cells because of their high-energy conversion efficiency and low production costs. However, further cost reduction is warranted in addition to the need for further increasing the efficiency. In recent years, several strategies for lowing the cost of DSCs have been made. The application of conductive plastic substrate to DSCs reduce the cost through mass production by employing role-to-role manufacturing system. Organic dye may afford a cut in sensitizer cost. Carbonaceous materials such as activated carbon, graphite, and carbon nanotubes have been employed as a low cost substitute for platinum to prepare the counter electrode. However, The conversion efficiency of DSCs with carbon counter electrode were still insufficient and should be increased for the practical usage. Mesoporous carbon (MC), due to their high surface area, high electrical conductivity, high stability, are utilized as catalysis and electrode materials for different purpose such as protection of environment and improvement of energy efficiency[8]. To take the advantage of the high surface area and high electrical conductivity of MC, a novel counter electrode based MC for DSCs was prepared. The performance of DSCs with MC electrode was investigated.