Composite counter electrode based on nanoparticulate PbS and carbon black: towards quantum dot-sensitized solar cells with both high efficiency and stability.
PbS/carbon black (CB) composite counter electrode (CE) has been fabricated by a low cost and low temperature processable method using the wet chemistry synthesized PbS nanoparticles. The nanosized PbS in the composite CE provides a large area of catalytic sites, and the chain-type CB framework acts as an excellent electrical tunnel for fast electron transport from an external circuit to highly catalytic PbS nanoparticles. The optimized PbS/CB composite CE shows a charge transfer resistance (R(CT)) as low as 10.28 Ω cm², which is an order of magnitude lower than the value obtained in the previous study on pure PbS CE. The CdS/CdSe quantum dot-sensitized solar cells with the PbS/CB composite CE achieve a photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 3.91% and no degradation of the efficiency over 1000 h under room conditions.
Key Laboratory for Renewable Energy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory for New Energy Materials and Devices, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China.
Yueyong
Y
Yang
Lifeng
L
Zhu
Huicheng
H
Sun
Xiaoming
X
Huang
Yanhong
Y
Luo
Dongmei
D
Li
Qingbo
Q
Meng
D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004566:Electrodes; D004735:Energy Transfer; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007854:Lead / Q000737:chemistry*; D045663:Quantum Dots; D018036:Selenium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D012993:Solar Energy; D053260:Soot / Q000737:chemistry*
D018036:Selenium Compounds; D053260:Soot; C088065:lead selenide; D007854:Lead