Self-Assembly Synthesis of the MoS2/PtCo Alloy Counter Electrodes for High-Efficiency and Stable Low-Cost Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Zhi Zeng; Dongbo Wang; Jinzhong Wang; Shujie Jiao; Yuewu Huang; Sixiang Zhao; Bingke Zhang; Mengyu Ma; Shiyong Gao; Xingguo Feng; Liancheng Zhao

doi:10.3390/nano10091725

Self-Assembly Synthesis of the MoS₂/PtCo Alloy Counter Electrodes for High-Efficiency and Stable Low-Cost Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2020 Aug 31;10(9):1725. doi: 10.3390/nano10091725.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Optoelectronic Information Science, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China.
² National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Surface Engineering, Lanzhou Institute of Physics, Lanzhou 730000, China.

Abstract

In this work, MoS₂ microspheres/PtCo-alloy nanoparticles (MoS₂/PtCo-alloy NPs) were composited via a novel and facile process which MoS₂ is functionalized by poly (N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP) and self-assembled with PtCo-alloy NPs. This new composite shows excellent electrocatalytic activity and great potential for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as a counter electrode (CE) material. Benefiting from heterostructure and synergistic effects, the MoS₂/PtCo-alloy NPs exhibit high electrocatalytic activity, low charge-transfer resistance and stability in the cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) test. Meanwhile, a high power-conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.46% is achieved in DSSCs with MoS₂/PtCo-alloy NP CEs, which are comparable to traditional Pt CEs (8.45%). This novel composite provides a new high-performance, stable and cheap choice for CEs in DSSCs.

Keywords: MoS2/PtCo-alloy nanoparticles; counter electrodes; dye-sensitized solar cells; efficiency; electrocatalytic activity.

Grants and funding

SQ2019YFA070104/National Key Research and Development Program of China