Highly ordered mesoporous Co3O4 cubes/graphene oxide heterostructure as efficient counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells
Author(s)
Zou, C
Chen, M
Zhou, Z
Yang, S
Hou, Y
Yang, H
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2021
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are expected to be a powerful competitor of conventional silicon devices due to their simple, low-cost, and pollution-free processing. Platinum (Pt) as commonly used counter electrode (CE) material is, however, limited to its expensive cost and undesired reverses. The development of an efficient Pt-free CE material with high electrical conductivity and excellent electrocatalytic activity is a feasible strategy to solve the above limitations. Herein, we have proposed a simple two-step strategy to synthesize hierarchical Co3O4/graphene oxide composite catalysts. The as-prepared nanoporous ...
View more >Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are expected to be a powerful competitor of conventional silicon devices due to their simple, low-cost, and pollution-free processing. Platinum (Pt) as commonly used counter electrode (CE) material is, however, limited to its expensive cost and undesired reverses. The development of an efficient Pt-free CE material with high electrical conductivity and excellent electrocatalytic activity is a feasible strategy to solve the above limitations. Herein, we have proposed a simple two-step strategy to synthesize hierarchical Co3O4/graphene oxide composite catalysts. The as-prepared nanoporous Co3O4 cubes with hierarchical architecture may provide a mass of electrocatalytic activity sites. The combination of hierarchical structures and graphene oxide may enable the electrons to rapidly transfer on the submicron-sized graphene oxide. As a novel and low-cost CE material, DSSCs based on hierarchical Co3O4/graphene oxide composite exhibit photovoltaic performance comparable to the traditional Pt CE. This is due to the ideal combination of excellent electrocatalytic activity and high conductivity. Our finding provides a judicious strategy for nanoscale synthesis of hierarchical composites and may facilitate the preparation of efficient and low-cost CE materials for DSSCs.
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View more >Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are expected to be a powerful competitor of conventional silicon devices due to their simple, low-cost, and pollution-free processing. Platinum (Pt) as commonly used counter electrode (CE) material is, however, limited to its expensive cost and undesired reverses. The development of an efficient Pt-free CE material with high electrical conductivity and excellent electrocatalytic activity is a feasible strategy to solve the above limitations. Herein, we have proposed a simple two-step strategy to synthesize hierarchical Co3O4/graphene oxide composite catalysts. The as-prepared nanoporous Co3O4 cubes with hierarchical architecture may provide a mass of electrocatalytic activity sites. The combination of hierarchical structures and graphene oxide may enable the electrons to rapidly transfer on the submicron-sized graphene oxide. As a novel and low-cost CE material, DSSCs based on hierarchical Co3O4/graphene oxide composite exhibit photovoltaic performance comparable to the traditional Pt CE. This is due to the ideal combination of excellent electrocatalytic activity and high conductivity. Our finding provides a judicious strategy for nanoscale synthesis of hierarchical composites and may facilitate the preparation of efficient and low-cost CE materials for DSSCs.
View less >
Journal Title
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics
Volume
32
Issue
12
Subject
Electrical engineering
Electronics, sensors and digital hardware
Materials engineering