Thermal Evaporation of Sb2Se3 as Novel Counter Electrode for Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

AbstractSb2Se3 was fabricated with a facile atmospheric pressure thermal evaporation procedure as counter electrode (CE) for dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The introduction of a carbon nanoparticle (CNP) film as substrate was proved to facilitate Sb2Se3 deposition, resulting in the formation of a Sb2Se3 layer on the surface of carbon nanoparticles (denoted as CNP‐Sb2Se3). Electrochemical characterizations demonstrate the intrinsic catalytic ability of Sb2Se3 and better electrocatalytic activity and stability of Sb2Se3 deposited on CNP film in catalyzing I3‐ reduction. Evaporation temperature was found to affect the electrocatalytic activity of CNP‐Sb2Se3 and a lower temperature of 400oC was proved to be better in our case. As a result, the best performing DSSC with CNP‐Sb2Se3 CE yields a power conversion efficiency of 6.26%, which is comparable to that based on Pt CE (6.47%).