Effect of WS2 nano-sheets on the catalytic activity of polyaniline nano-rods based counter electrode for dye sensitized solar cell

Abstract

The performance and commercialization of dye sensitized solar cells is very much dependent on cost effective and robust catalyst. In this study, polyaniline (PANi) nano-rods have been synthesized and the effect of tungsten disulfite (WS2) nanosheets has been investigated for the catalytic and electronic properties of polyaniline. Various concentrations of WS2 nanosheets i.e., 1 wt%, 2 wt%, 5 wt% and 7 wt% have been used to examine the effect of concentration of WS2 on overall electronic properties of PANi. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have been employed for morphological studies. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns have been studied for compositional analysis. Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) along with cyclic voltammetry (CV) have been utilized to investigate the catalytic activity in specified electrolyte and to identify unsaturated redox-active functionalities respectively. Sun simulator has been employed to study incident photo conversion efficiency (IPCE), open circuit voltage (Voc) and short circuit current (Isc). Finally, electron impedance spectroscopy has been employed to study the electronic resistance at the interfaces. An increase in overall electronic and device performance has been observed. The specimens containing 5 wt% WS2 in PANi exhibited 7.32% IPCE which is 92.14% equivalent to platinum (Pt) counter electrode based reference DSSC.