Engineering the Interfaces of ITO@Cu2S Nanowire Arrays toward Efficient and Stable Counter Electrodes for Quantum-Dot-Sensitized Solar Cells
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- 作者：Yan Jiang ; Xing Zhang ; Qian-Qing Ge ; Bin-Bin Yu ; Yu-Gang Zou ; Wen-Jie Jiang ; Jin-Song Hu ; Wei-Guo Song ; Li-Jun Wan
- 刊名：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
- 出版年：2014
- 出版时间：September 10, 2014
- 年：2014
- 卷：6
- 期：17
- 页码：15448-15455
- 全文大小：400K
- ISSN：1944-8252
文摘
Among the issues that restrict the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of quantum-dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs), insufficient catalytic activity and stability of counter electrodes (CEs) are critical but challenging ones. The state-of-the-art Cu/Cu2S CEs still suffer from mechanical instability and uncertainty due to the reaction of copper and electrolyte. Herein, ITO@Cu2S core鈥搒hell nanowire arrays were developed to fabricate CEs for QDSSCs, which have no such issues in Cu/Cu2S CEs. These nanowire arrays exhibited small charge transfer resistance and sheet resistance, and provided more active catalytic sites and easy accessibility for electrolyte due to the three-dimensional structure upon use as CEs. More interestingly, it was found that the interface of ITO/Cu2S significantly affected the performance of ITO@Cu2S nanowire array CEs. By varying synthetic methods, a series of ITO@Cu2S nanowire arrays were prepared to investigate the influence of ITO/Cu2S interface on their performance. The results showed that ITO@Cu2S nanowire array CEs with a continuous Cu2S nanocrystal shell fabricated via an improved cation exchange route exhibited excellent and thickness-dependent performance. The PCE of corresponding QDSSCs increased by 11.6 and 16.5% compared to that with the discrete Cu2S nanocrystal and the classic Cu/Cu2S CE, respectively, indicating its promising potential as a new type of CE for QDSSCs.