Solar energy conversion by dye-sensitized photovoltaic cells using high surface area mesoporous carbon counter electrode

Abstract

Development of new counter electrode materials is vital for commercialization of efficient dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) process. Research on DSCs has been focused mainly on using platinum as counter electrode, which makes them expensive. In this paper, we report DSCs fabricated with high surface area mesoporous carbon thin film with uniform spherical particles as counter electrode. An overall light-to-electricity efficiency as high as 7.6 has been achieved under illumination of air mass (AM) 1.5 sunlight (100mW/cm 2). In comparison with activated carbon, high surface area mesoporous carbon shows superior performance. Our results show that mesoporous carbon with high specific surface area and uniform pore size distribution proved to be better efficient electrode material for DSCs. Copyright © 2011 Pavuluri Srinivasu et al.