Synthesis and photovoltaic application of platinum-modified conducting aligned nanotube fiber

Abstract

Platinum-modified carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers with controlled platinumweight percentages were synthesized via an electrochemical depositionmethod. Platinum nanoparticles can be uniformly deposited on the surfaceof the aligned CNTs in the fiber, which possesses an efficient improvedcatalytic activity in the reduction of I-3(-)/I- compared with otherfiber materials such as a carbon fiber without the alignednanostructure. The hybrid CNT fiber was further used as a counterelectrode to fabricate fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Amaximal power conversion efficiency of 8.10% was achieved, comparedwith that of 4.91% for a bare aligned CNT fiber and 5.50% for aplatinum-modified carbon fiber as the counter electrode under the samecondition.