Synthesis of reduced graphene oxide/macrocyclic ytterbium complex nanocomposites and their application in the counter electrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells

摘要

This study focused on synthesizing graphene oxide (GO) and macrocyclic ytterbium (Yb) complexes. The GO/Yb nanocomposite materials were prepared by performing a reaction between the secondary ammonium of macrocyclic ytterbium complexes and the GO surface functional groups (e.g., epoxide and carboxyl groups), thereby inducing the macrocyclic ytterbium complexes to uniformly cover the surface of the GO samples. In this study, different proportions of GO and macrocyclic ytterbium complexes were prepared as counter electrode (CE) materials in DSSCs; the surface morphology of the films, the composition of the structural elements, and their effects on the DSSC efficiency were discussed. The results of different analyses confirmed that a new GO/Yb nanocomposite material has been successfully synthesized in this study. Furthermore, various DSSC CEs were fabricated using different proportions of GO/Yb, and the characteristics of the DSSCs were analyzed. The results showed that the highest efficiency of the devices was 7.90%, which was higher than that of DSSCs with traditional Pt CEs. The GO/Yb nanocomposite materials can replace Pt as a CE material for DSSCs, and among all DSSC CEs prepared in this study, the DSSC with a GO/Yb (1:10) CE was the most efficient.