Abstract

A facile process to produce large‐area platinum (Pt) counter electrode platforms with well‐arrayed, mesh‐shaped nanopatterns using commercially available TiO2 paste and poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) nanostamps is presented. The process involves mesh‐shaped (200 nm × 200 nm) nanopatterning of a TiO2 scaffold onto a fluorine‐doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate, followed by Pt sputtering. The structure and morphology of the counter electrodes are characterized by a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE‐SEM) and an atomic force microscope (AFM). Solid‐state dye‐sensitized solar cells (ssDSSCs) fabricated with these mesh‐shaped Pt counter electrodes showed an efficiency of 7.0%. This is one of the highest efficiencies observed for N719 dye and is much higher than that of devices with non‐patterned, thermally deposited electrodes (5.4%) or non‐patterned, sputtering deposited electrodes (5.7%). This improvement is attributed to enhanced light harvesting and a greater surface area and has been confirmed by incident photon‐to current efficiency (IPCE), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements.

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