Directly hydrothermal growth of ultrathin MoS2 nanostructured films as high performance counter electrodes for dye-sensitised solar cells

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Author(s)
Al-Mamun, Mohammad
Zhang, Haimin
Liu, Porun
Wang, Yun
Cao, Jun
Zhao, Huijun
Year published
2014
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Ultrathin MoS2 nanostructured films with a surface exposed layered nanosheet structure were successfully grown onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) conducting substrates by a facile one-pot hydrothermal method. After calcination at 400 àin argon, the resulting MoS2 films were directly used as counter electrodes (CEs) for dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs), exhibiting excellent DSSC performance. The hydrothermal reaction temperature and molar ratio of reaction precursors were found to have significant influence on the resulting structure of MoS2, and thus the DSSCs performance. It was found that ultrathin MoS2 nanostructured ...
View more >Ultrathin MoS2 nanostructured films with a surface exposed layered nanosheet structure were successfully grown onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) conducting substrates by a facile one-pot hydrothermal method. After calcination at 400 àin argon, the resulting MoS2 films were directly used as counter electrodes (CEs) for dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs), exhibiting excellent DSSC performance. The hydrothermal reaction temperature and molar ratio of reaction precursors were found to have significant influence on the resulting structure of MoS2, and thus the DSSCs performance. It was found that ultrathin MoS2 nanostructured film with surface exposed layered nanosheet structures can be obtained by hydrothermal treatment of a reaction solution including (NH4)6Mo7O24紈2O and NH2CSNH2 with a molar ratio of 1[thin space (1/6-em)]:[thin space (1/6-em)]28 at 150 àfor 24 h. The obtained MoS2 films as CEs for DSSCs showed the best light conversion efficiency of 7.41%, which was superior to Pt-based DSSCs (7.13%). The excellent DSSC performance could be due to high stability, good electrical conductivity, rich electrocatalytically active sites, and good electrolyte transport properties of the fabricated MoS2 film with a surface layered nanosheet structure. This study demonstrated the applicability of a facile hydrothermal approach for direct growth of highly electrocatalytically active metal chalcogenide films as high performance CEs for DSSCs.
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View more >Ultrathin MoS2 nanostructured films with a surface exposed layered nanosheet structure were successfully grown onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) conducting substrates by a facile one-pot hydrothermal method. After calcination at 400 àin argon, the resulting MoS2 films were directly used as counter electrodes (CEs) for dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs), exhibiting excellent DSSC performance. The hydrothermal reaction temperature and molar ratio of reaction precursors were found to have significant influence on the resulting structure of MoS2, and thus the DSSCs performance. It was found that ultrathin MoS2 nanostructured film with surface exposed layered nanosheet structures can be obtained by hydrothermal treatment of a reaction solution including (NH4)6Mo7O24紈2O and NH2CSNH2 with a molar ratio of 1[thin space (1/6-em)]:[thin space (1/6-em)]28 at 150 àfor 24 h. The obtained MoS2 films as CEs for DSSCs showed the best light conversion efficiency of 7.41%, which was superior to Pt-based DSSCs (7.13%). The excellent DSSC performance could be due to high stability, good electrical conductivity, rich electrocatalytically active sites, and good electrolyte transport properties of the fabricated MoS2 film with a surface layered nanosheet structure. This study demonstrated the applicability of a facile hydrothermal approach for direct growth of highly electrocatalytically active metal chalcogenide films as high performance CEs for DSSCs.
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Journal Title
RSC Advances
Volume
4
Copyright Statement
© 2014 Royal Society of Chemistry. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Chemical sciences
Macromolecular and materials chemistry not elsewhere classified