Thermally Stable Boron-Doped Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes as a Pt-free Counter Electrode for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

• Published in: ACS sustainable chemistry & engineering 2017-01, Vol.5 (1), p.537-546
• Main Authors: Leu, Yow-An, Yeh, Min-Hsin, Lin, Lu-Yin, Li, Ta-Jen, Chang, Ling-Yu, Shen, Sheng-Yen, Li, Yan-Sheng, Chen, Guan-Lin, Chiang, Wei-Hung, Lin, Jiang-Jen, Ho, Kuo-Chuan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2168-0485; 2168-0485
• DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.6b01895

A polymeric dispersant is usually used for preparing the uniform multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNT) film for replacing Pt as the catalyst on the counter electrode (CE) of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). However, it is necessary to remove the polymeric dispersant completely due to its nonconductive property. Herein, boron-doped CNT (BCNT) with enhanced thermal stability, as the benefit to the dispersant removal, was prepared as the catalyst on the CE of a DSSC, and the cells with pristine CNT and Pt as the catalyst on the CEs were compared. The BCNT based DSSC shows the best light-to-electricity conversion efficiency (η) of 7.91 ± 0.21%, which is higher than that of the cell with a CNT CE (η = 6.02 ± 0.19%) and is comparable to that of the cell with a Pt CE (η = 8.03 ± 0.11%).