title: Facile synthesis of high quality multi-walled carbon nanotubes on novel 3D KIT-6: application in high performance dye-sensitized solar cells.
abstract: A novel hard templating strategy for the synthesis of high quality multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with a uniform diameter was developed. MWCNTs were successfully synthesized through chemical vapour deposition (CVD) using acetylene by employing 3D bicontinuous mesoporous silica (KIT-6) as a hard template and used as the counter electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Here, we report that Ni-Cr-KIT-6 and Co-Cr-KIT-6 systems are the most suitable catalysts for the growth of MWCNTs. Raman spectroscopy and TEM analysis revealed that the synthesized MWCNTs were of high quality and well graphitized. Impressively, DSSCs with a MWCNT counter electrode demonstrated high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of up to 10.53%, which was significantly higher than that of 9.87% obtained for a DSSC with a conventional Pt counter electrode. Moreover, MWCNTs had a charge transfer resistance (Rct) of only 0.74 Ω cm(2) towards the I3(-)/I(-) electrolyte commonly applied in DSSCs, which is several orders of magnitude lower than that of a typical Pt electrode (2.78 Ω cm(2)). These results indicate that the synthesized MWCNT counter electrodes are versatile candidates that can increase the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of DSSCs.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials Institute of BIN Technology (BK21 plus Global) & Department of BIN Fusion Technology, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, Jeonbuk 561-756, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jayaraman
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Balamurugan
authors.forename: Arumugam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pandurangan
authors.forename: Nam Hoon
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Joong Hee
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee