HIGHLY CATALYTIC ACTIVE NANOSTRUCTURED Pt ELECTRODES FOR DYE-SENSITIZED SOLAR CELLS PREPARED BY LOW TEMPERATURE ELECTRODEPOSITION

Abstract

Highly catalytic active nanostructured Pt electrodes (NPEs) for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are prepared on indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) conductive glasses using a nonionic surfactant-assisted low-temperature electrodeposition method with controlled quantity of electroplating charge. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) show that the NPEs on ITO conductive glass are composed of nano-sized Pt particles with a diameter of 3–4 nm. Remarkably, with a similar thickness of ca. 38 nm, the NPE shows a charge-transfer resistance (R ct ) of 0.063 Ω ⋅ cm 2, a value almost 20 times lower than that of the sputtered Pt electrode, demonstrating the superior catalytic activity of the NPE. Furthermore, with almost half of the Pt loading, DSC device with NPE exhibits comparable photovoltaic performance with the conventionally sputtered Pt electrode.