Atmospheric plasma reaction synthesised PtxFe1−x/graphene and TiO2nanoparticles/graphene for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

We report a facile atmospheric plasma reaction synthesis of PtxFe1−xalloys with the different Pt/Fe stoichiometric ratio in PtxFe1−xalloys on graphene (G) as efficient counter electrode (CE) materials and atmospheric plasma reaction synthesised TiO2nanoparticles/G as photoanode in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Well-distributed PtxFe1−xnanoparticles or TiO2nanoparticles on the G surface were obtained. Remarkably, DSSCs prepared by the Pt0.7Fe0.3/G CE have much higher catalytic activity and stable durability than Pt1Fe0/G CE. The as-synthesized Pt0.7Fe0.3/G CE exhibits the largest value of |Jred| = 1.479 mA and the lowest value ofRct= 2.86 Ω. With the Pt0.7Fe0.3/G as CE and TiO2/G as the photoanode, the DSSC can deliver an overall power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10.13%, which is significantly higher than the 9.72% of the expensive Pt1Fe0/G counterpart. The obtained results indicate that the PtxFe1−x/G nanohybrids fabricated using atmospheric plasma reaction exhibited potential as a reference for next generation CE materials in highly efficient DSSCs. We believe that this work provides an effective strategy for optimizing Pt utilization for the low-cost and efficient application of DSSCs.