Stainless steel mesh-based flexible quasi-solid dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

A new type of stainless steel mesh-based flexible quasi-solid dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) was designed and fabricated by using electrospun TiO 2 nanofibers web as a light scattering layer and stainless steel foil coated with polypyrrole (PPy) nanoparticles as counter electrode. The photovoltaic performance measurements showed that electrospun TiO 2 nanofibers web was propitious to light harvesting ability and energy conversion efficiency. Cyclic voltammogram measurement revealed that PPy electrode possessed smaller charge-transfer resistance and higher electrocatalytic activity for the I 2/I − redox reaction than that of Pt electrode. A overall energy conversion efficiency ( η) of 2.36% was obtained based on a DSSC with N719 dye as sensitizer and PPy nanoparticles coated on the stainless steel foil as counter electrode, which attained 84% of the η value (2.80%) of the quasi-solid DSSC with Pt foil as counter electrode.