Fabrication of Mesoporous CoS2 Nanotube Arrays as the Counter Electrodes of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Jung-Che Tsai; Min-Hsiung Hon; Ing-Chi Leu

doi:10.1002/asia.201500500

Fabrication of Mesoporous CoS2 Nanotube Arrays as the Counter Electrodes of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Chem Asian J. 2015 Sep;10(9):1932-9. doi: 10.1002/asia.201500500. Epub 2015 Aug 4.

Authors

Jung-Che Tsai¹, Min-Hsiung Hon^{1

2}, Ing-Chi Leu³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, No.1, University Road, Tainan City, 701, Taiwan R.O.C.
² Research Center for Energy Technology and Strategy, National Cheng Kung University, No.1, University Road, Tainan City, 701, Taiwan R.O.C.
³ Department of Materials Science, National University of Tainan, 33, Sec. 2, Shu-Lin St., Tainan, 700, Taiwan R.O.C.. icleu@mail.mse.ncku.edu.tw.

PMID: 26154709
DOI: 10.1002/asia.201500500

Abstract

Mesoporous cobalt sulfide nanotube arrays on FTO-coated glass were synthesized by combining three simple technologies: the selective etching of ZnO sacrificial templates, mesoporous Co3 O4 formation from cobalt-chelated chitosan, and ion-exchange reaction (IER). The mesoporous Co3 O4 nanotubes composed of the Co3 O4 nanoparticles possess a high surface area and are taken advantage for further removal of templates and IER. The morphologies and crystal structures of the CoS2 nanotube arrays were characterized by SEM, TEM, and XRD analyses. Their electrocatalytic properties were determined by electrochemical analyses including cyclic voltammetry measurements and Tafel polarization. The DSSCs assembled with a CoS2 counter electrode achieved a power conversion efficiency of 6.13 %, which was comparable to that of the DSSC with the Pt counter electrode (6.04 %). This indicates that the mesoporous CoS2 nanotube array can be a low-cost and efficient alternative for the reduction of electrolytes in DSSCs.

Keywords: cobalt sulfide; counter electrode; dye-sensitized solar cells; mesoporous materials; nanotube arrays.