Recent progress on preparation of transition metal compounds as counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted extensive attention in recent years due to their simple fabrication, low cost and environmental friendliness. The production process for counter electrode (CE) as one of the key components of DSSC, will significantly affect the DSSCs development and application. Therefore, it is important to develop low cost and high performance catalytic materials instead of noble metal Pt to reduce the production cost of DSSC. Transition metal compounds with Pt-like catalytic activity have become a hot research area for CEs of DSSC in recent years, due to their wide variety and simple preparation. This review briefly addresses recent progresses of transition metal compound CEs of DSSC, focusing on their preparation methods and performance. In addition, the development trends and application prospects of CEs were also discussed.