Imaging Science and Photochemistry ›› 2017, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (5): 758-764.DOI: 10.7517/j.issn.1674-0475.2017.04.036

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Coaxial CoSe/TiN Nanotube Arrays as Counter Electrodes of Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

XU Hongxia, WANG Zaiwei, ZHANG Chuanjian, CUI Guanglei   

  1. Qingdao Key Lab of Solar Energy Utilization and Energy Storage Technology, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266101, Shandong, P. R. China
  • Received:2017-04-10 Revised:2017-05-27 Online:2017-09-15 Published:2017-09-15

Abstract:

Coaxial CoSe/TiN nanotube arrays have been designed for high performance counter electrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells. This hybrid counter electrodewas prepared by electrodepositing CoSe into TiN nanotube arrays, which are prepared by anodization of a Ti mesh substrate and subsequent nitridation using ammonia annealing. The CoSe/TiN counter electrode displayed excellent performance comparable to Pt/FTO counter electrode due to the effectively combined network of both high electrical conductivity and more favorable and efficient interfacial active sites. The energy conversion efficiency of the cell with CoSe/TiN/Ti as counter electrode reached 9.25%, which was superior to 8.09% of the cell with Pt/FTO counter electrode under the same experimental conditions. These results demonstrate that the coaxial composite nanostructureis very promising for the structure-controllable counter electrode (CE) material.

Key words: counter electrode, dye-sensitized solar cell, nanotube array, titanium nitride, cobalt selenide