TiO2 composing with pristine, metallic or semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes: which gives the best performance for a dye-sensitized solar cell.
Different types of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), pristine (p-), metallic (m-) and semiconducting (s-) are incorporated into TiO(2) photoanodes to improve the dye-sensitized solar-cell (DSSC) performance and their effects on the device performance are further investigated. Although all three types of SWCNTs are found to have comparable structural morphologies and a reduced charge transport resistivity for the photoanodes, only the semiconducting one was able to suppress charge-recombination events, resulting in even greater improvement of DSSC performances. This is very likely to be ascribed to the higher energy barrier of s-SWCNTs compared to both m- and p-SWCNTs to block the back flowing of dye-injected electrons for I(3)(-) reduction in the charge recombination process.
School of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 70 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637457, Singapore.
Guan Hong
GH
Guai
Yao
Y
Li
Chee Mang
CM
Ng
Chang Ming
CM
Li
Mary B
MB
Chan-Park