Electrophoretic deposition of Pt nanoparticles on plastic substrates as counter electrode for flexible dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

The low-temperature fabrication of a counter electrode (CE) with low cost and high catalytic activity is one of the key steps for the practical realization of flexible dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Electrophoretic deposition is found to be an efficient method for room-temperature deposition of platinum nanoparticles on plastic substrates with low cost. The plastic CEs show increased catalytic activity and reduced transmittance when the deposited time is increased from 0 to 8 min. Under optimized conditions, flexible DSSCs based on electrophoretic deposition plastic Pt CEs and nanocrystalline TiO 2 photoanodes on Ti foil reach an energy-conversion efficiency ( η) of 5.8% (under a rear-side illumination of AM 1.5 100 mW cm −2), which is better than that for a device ( η = 5.3%) fabricated under the same conditions with a sputtered Pt CE.