An all carbon dye sensitized solar cell: A sustainable and low-cost design for metal free wearable solar cell devices

• Published in: Journal of colloid and interface science 2020-06, Vol.569, p.386-401
• Main Authors: Arbab, Alvira Ayoub, Ali, Mumtaz, Memon, Anam Ali, Sun, Kyung Chul, Choi, Bum Jin, Jeong, Sung Hoon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon; Dye sensitized solar cell; Electrocatalytic activity; Graphene; TiO2 nanorods
• ISSN: 0021-9797; 1095-7103
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.02.078

[Display omitted] Lightweight carbon electrodes are the new candidates for photovoltaic devices due to their temperature resistivity, ease of fabrication, and skin comfortability. Herein, a sustainable and facile strategy has been proposed for metal free all carbon dye sensitized solar cell (C-DSSC), assembled by stacking carbon front electrode (CFE) and carbon counter electrode (CCE). The CFE demonstrated adequate light transmittance (70–50%) while maintaining efficient photon absorption and charge separation mechanism due to dye coated TiO2 nanorods (P25-R). The graphene dip coated carbon counter electrode (Gr@CCE) possesses remarkable electro catalytic activity towards I3-/I- redox couple with low charge transfer resistance (RCT = 0.79 Ω). The sustainable design of C-DSSC attained ~6 ± 0.5% efficiency with high photocurrent density of 18.835 mA. cm−2. The superior performance of C-DSSC is accredited to its improved charge mobility, low internal resistance, and better interfacial electrode contact. The thickness of C-DSSC is ≤3 mm eliminates the need for rigid glass in DSSC.