Photofabrication of Highly Transparent Platinum Counter Electrodes at Ambient Temperature for Bifacial Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Idris K Popoola; Mohammed A Gondal; Jwaher M AlGhamdi; Talal F Qahtan

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-31040-1

Photofabrication of Highly Transparent Platinum Counter Electrodes at Ambient Temperature for Bifacial Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Sci Rep. 2018 Aug 27;8(1):12864. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-31040-1.

Authors

Idris K Popoola¹, Mohammed A Gondal², Jwaher M AlGhamdi³, Talal F Qahtan¹

Affiliations

¹ Laser Research Group, Physics Department & Center of Excellence in Nanotechnology, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, P.O. Box 5047, Dhahran, 31261, Saudi Arabia.
² Laser Research Group, Physics Department & Center of Excellence in Nanotechnology, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, P.O. Box 5047, Dhahran, 31261, Saudi Arabia. magondal@kfupm.edu.sa.
³ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, 31113, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Platinum (Pt) counter electrodes (CEs) have consistently shown excellent electrocatalytic performance and holds the record of the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). However, its use for large-scale production is limited either by high temperature required for thermal decomposition of its precursor or by wastage of the material leading to high cost or sophisticated equipment. Here, we report a novel photofabrication technique to fabricate highly transparent platinum counter electrodes by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation of platinic acid (H₂PtCl₆.6H₂O) on rigid fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) and flexible indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates. The photofabrication technique is a facile and versatile method for the fabrication of Pt CEs for dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The photofabricated Pt CEs were used to fabricate bifacial DSSCs with power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) attaining 7.29% for front illumination and 5.85% for rear illumination. The highest percentage ratio of the rear illumination efficiency to the front illumination efficiency (η_R) of 85.92% was recorded while the least η_R is 77.91%.