Issue 45, 2015

Formation of short three dimensional porous assemblies of super hydrophobic acetylene black intertwined by copper oxide nanorods for a robust counter electrode of DSSCs

Abstract

In this study, we synthesized monolithic copper-oxide nanorods (CuO-NRs) and doped into active super hydrophobic acetylene black (AB) nanocrystals via a fast solvation method. The developed short-dimension assemblies are utilized as counter electrode (CE) materials for energy harvesting in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analyses reveal that the hybrid (CuO-NRs/AB) CE displays a fast reduction rate of I3 and boosts hole-cascading as compared to those of individual AB CEs, due to the superior catalytic characteristics of CuO-NRs and the good electrical conductivity of AB. The CuO-NRs/AB based DSSCs exhibit an enhanced power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.05%, in contrast to AB (6.51%) and pristine Pt (6.96%) CE based DSSCs under the same experimental conditions. The CuO-NRs/AB CE, along with impressive results, has prospective applications in robust DSSCs.

Graphical abstract: Formation of short three dimensional porous assemblies of super hydrophobic acetylene black intertwined by copper oxide nanorods for a robust counter electrode of DSSCs

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Feb 2015
Accepted
10 Apr 2015
First published
10 Apr 2015

RSC Adv., 2015,5, 35635-35642

Author version available

Formation of short three dimensional porous assemblies of super hydrophobic acetylene black intertwined by copper oxide nanorods for a robust counter electrode of DSSCs

W. Ahmad, L. Chu, M. R. Al-bahrani, Z. Yang, S. Wang, L. Li and Y. Gao, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 35635 DOI: 10.1039/C5RA02730F

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