title: Porous, platinum nanoparticle-adsorbed carbon nanotube yarns for efficient fiber solar cells.
abstract: Pt is a classical catalyst that has been extensively used in fuel cell and solar cell electrodes, owing to its high catalytic activity, good conductivity, and stability. In conventional fiber-shaped solar cells, solid Pt wires are usually adopted as the electrode material. Here, we report a Pt nanoparticle-adsorbed carbon nanotube yarn made by solution adsorption and yarn spinning processes, with uniformly dispersed Pt nanoparticles through the porous nanotube network. We have fabricated TiO(2)-based dye-sensitized fiber solar cells with a Pt-nanotube hybrid yarn as counter electrode and achieved a power conversion efficiency of 4.85% under standard illumination (AM1.5, 100 mW/cm(2)), comparable to the same type of fiber cells with a Pt wire electrode (4.23%). Adsorption of Pt nanoparticles within a porous nanotube yarn results in enhanced Pt-electrolyte interfacial area and significantly reduced charge-transfer resistance across the electrolyte interface, compared to a pure nanotube yarn or Pt wire. Our porous Pt-nanotube hybrid yarns have the potential to reduce the use of noble metals, lower the device weight, and improve the solar cell efficiency.
authors.affiliation: Department of Energy and Resources Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Sen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Chunyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Zuqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bian
authors.forename: Pingrong
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Luhui
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Dianyi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Enzheng
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Yuanyuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.forename: Haitao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Qiao
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Chunhui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Anyuan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cao
mesh_terms: D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010316:Particle Size; D010984:Platinum / Q000737:chemistry*; D012993:Solar Energy
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D010984:Platinum