Development of MoSe2/PANI composite nanofibers as an alternative to Pt counter electrode to boost the photoconversion efficiency of dye sensitized solar cell

Abstract

In this work, a simple hydrothermally prepared molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2) was mixed with polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers at 1:1 Wt% in deionized water by using an ultrasonicator for few minutes and then filtered and dried at 100 °C to get MoSe2/PANI composite nanofibers to use as a counter electrode (CE) for high-performance dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The X-ray diffractometer (XRD) result confirms the formation of MoSe2/PANI composite nanofibers with high purity, which is consistent with the result of Raman spectrum. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) studies confirm the decoration of MoSe2 nanoparticles onto the surface of polyaniline nanofibers and their chemical composition was calculated by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The cyclic voltammetry (CV) study shows that MoSe2/PANI composite nanofibers as CE have good electrocatalytic activity, fast electron transport rate with increased current flow than the individual MoSe2 and PANI CEs. From AC-impedance analysis, it is cleared that MoSe2/PANI composite nanofibers based CE have lower charge-transfer resistance (Rct) with higher electrocatalytic behavior for I3−/I− redox pair than the pure MoSe2, PANI, and Pt-based CEs. Moreover, MoSe2/PANI composite nanofibers based DSSC show higher cell efficiency of 8.04% than the pure MoSe2, PANI, and Pt-based DSSCs. It revealed that MoSe2/PANI CE could be used as a promising candidate for DSSC.