Low-Cost Pt-Free Counter Electrode Catalysts in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are potential candidates to silicon solar cells due to their merits of simple fabrication procedure, low-cost, and good plasticity. Till date, great advances have been achieved in the design of dyes, redox couples, and counter electrode (CE) catalysts for DSCs and the highest energy conversion efficiency is up to 12.3 %. In this part, our attention focuses on CE catalysts. Besides Pt, carbon materials, conductive polymers, transition metal compounds (carbides, nitrides, oxides, sulfides, phosphides, selenides), and composite catalysts, denoted as Pt-free catalysts, have been introduced into DSCs as CE catalysts. In the following sections, we give a summary of Pt-free CE catalysts and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each variety of Pt-free catalysts.