Facile synthesis of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) film via solid-state polymerization as high-performance Pt-free counter electrodes for plastic dye-sensitized solar cells.
A high-performance Pt-free counter electrode (CE) based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) film for plastic dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) has been developed via a facile solid-state polymerization (SSP) approach. The polymerization was simply initiated by sintering the monomer, 2,5-dibromo-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (DBEDOT), at the temperature of 80 °C, which can be applied on the plastic substrate. The cyclic voltammetry measurements revealed that the catalytic activity of the SSP-PEDOT CE for triiodide reduction is comparable with that of the Pt CE. Under optimized conditions, the power conversion efficiency of a DSC with a N719-sensitized TiO2 photoanode and the SSP-PEDOT CE is 7.04% measured under standard 1 sun illumination (100 mW cm(-2), AM 1.5), which is very close to that of the device fabricated under the same conditions with a conventional thermally deposited Pt CE (7.35%). Furthermore, taking advantage of the compatibility of the SSP-PEDOT with the plastic substrates, a full plastic N719-sensitized TiO2 solar cell was demonstrated, and an efficiency of 4.65% was achieved, which is comparable with the performance of a plastic DSC with a sputter-deposited Pt CE (5.38%). These results demonstrated that solid-state polymerization initiated at low temperature is a facile and low-cost method of fabricating the high-performance Pt-free CEs for plastic DSCs.
National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
Xiong
X
Yin
Fan
F
Wu
Nianqing
N
Fu
Jing
J
Han
Dongliang
D
Chen
Peng
P
Xu
Meng
M
He
Yuan
Y
Lin
D019086:Bridged Bicyclo Compounds, Heterocyclic / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D004396:Coloring Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D004566:Electrodes; D010984:Platinum / Q000737:chemistry*; D058105:Polymerization; D011108:Polymers / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D012993:Solar Energy
D019086:Bridged Bicyclo Compounds, Heterocyclic; D004396:Coloring Agents; D011108:Polymers; C121383:poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene); D010984:Platinum