The combination of a polymer–carbon composite electrode with a high-absorptivity ruthenium dye achieves an efficient dye-sensitized solar cell based on a thiolate–disulfide redox couple

摘要

To overcome the intrinsic shortcomings of the traditional iodide–triiodide redox couple andpursue a further performance improvement, intense efforts have been made to exploit alternativeredox shuttles in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Herein, we report an energetic and kinetic viewof DSCs when the iodine electrolyte is substituted with its thiolate counterpart and identify that aconventional platinum counter electrode presents low catalytic activity for the thiolate electrolyte,featuring a high charge transfer resistance found at the platinized fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO).We employ conductive carbon black with several polymers to fabricate highly active compositecatalysts for thiolate regeneration. The use of a highly active conductive carbon black andpolymerized 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene composition as a counter electrode combined with ahigh-absorptivity ruthenium dye C106 sensitized titania film has generated a DSC with an organicthiolated electrolyte, exhibiting an overall power conversion efficiency of 7.6% under AM1.5Gfull sunlight.