Abstract
In this study, polymer-assisted dispersants are used to stabilize the nanohybrids of platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs)/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) through non-covalent bond forces. These dispersants aim to replace the florine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass in traditional dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as counter electrodes. The large specific surface area, high conductivity, and redox potential of PtNPs/CNT nanohybrids are used as the basis to utilize them as the counter electrode material to fabricate a dye-sensitized solar cell. The conductivity results indicate that the resistance of the PtNP/CNT nanohybrid film can be reduced to 7.25 Ω/sq. When carbon nanotubes are mixed with platinum nanoparticles at a weight ratio of 5/1, the photoelectric conversion efficiency of DSSCs can reach 6.28%. When using the FTO-containing substrate as the counter electrode, its conversion efficiency indicates that the micro-/nano-hybrid material formed by PtNPs/CNTs also exhibits an excellent photoelectric conversion efficiency (8.45%) on the traditional FTO substrate. Further, a large-area dye-sensitive cell is fabricated, showing that an 8 cm × 8 cm cell has a conversion efficiency of 7.95%. Therefore, the traditional Pt counter electrode can be replaced with a PtNP/CNT nanohybrid film, which both provides dye-sensitive cells with a high photoelectric conversion efficiency and reduces costs.
Highlights
The ion-dipole interaction formed between O− and Pt3+ in the molecular chain of the dispersant was used to ensure that platinum can be more stably reduced around the carbon nanotubes
The results show that single-branch PIB-M1000 and double-branch PIB-ED900-PIB with the same molecular weight of polyetheramine was compared for the UV–vis transmittance, which is 62 for the carbon nanotube solution, without adding the dispersant
The results show that, without the dispersant, the counter electrode based on carbon nanotubes causes multiple locations of agglomeration counter electrode based on carbon nanotubes causes multiple locations agglomeration that are distributed unevenly
Summary
The rapid growth of the population on earth and the world economy has brought human demand for energy to an unprecedented level [1]. There have been several reports on the use of organic dispersants to reduce metal particles into carbon nanomaterials [40,41], but there have not been related papers published on the application of DSSCs. In this study, four different polymer-assisted dispersants were designed and synthesized, and platinum precursors was used to prepare PtNPs through chemical redox reactions. As a one-dimensional carbon nanomaterial, CNTs have excellent electrical conductivity and flexibility, whose high specific surface area can be utilized to absorb platinum nanoparticles, forming a hybrid complex of two different dimensions This is applied to the DSSCs’ counter electrode, which can improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the cell
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