State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology, No. 2 Linggong Road, Ganjingzi District, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, P. R. China 116024.
J Am Chem Soc. 2012 Feb 22;134(7):3419-28. doi: 10.1021/ja209657v. Epub 2012 Feb 8.
Three classes (carbides, nitrides and oxides) of nanoscaled early-transition-metal catalysts have been proposed to replace the expensive Pt catalyst as counter electrodes (CEs) in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Of these catalysts, Cr(3)C(2), CrN, VC(N), VN, TiC, TiC(N), TiN, and V(2)O(3) all showed excellent catalytic activity for the reduction of I(3)(-) to I(-) in the electrolyte. Further, VC embedded in mesoporous carbon (VC-MC) was prepared through in situ synthesis. The I(3)(-)/I(-) DSC based on the VC-MC CE reached a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.63%, comparable to the photovoltaic performance of the DSC using a Pt CE (7.50%). In addition, the carbide catalysts demonstrated catalytic activity higher than that of Pt for the regeneration of a new organic redox couple of T(2)/T(-). The T(2)/T(-) DSCs using TiC and VC-MC CEs showed PCEs of 4.96 and 5.15%, much higher than that of the DSC using a Pt CE (3.66%). This work expands the list of potential CE catalysts, which can help reduce the cost of DSCs and thereby encourage their fundamental research and commercial application.
已提出三类（碳化物、氮化物和氧化物）纳米级过渡金属催化剂以替代昂贵的 Pt 催化剂作为染料敏化太阳能电池（DSC）的对电极（CE）。在这些催化剂中，Cr(3)C(2)、CrN、VC(N)、VN、TiC、TiC(N)、TiN 和 V(2)O(3) 均表现出对电解质中 I(3)(-)还原为 I(-)的优异催化活性。此外，通过原位合成制备了嵌入介孔碳（VC-MC）中的 VC。基于 VC-MC CE 的 I(3)(-)/I(-) DSC 达到了 7.63%的高功率转换效率（PCE），可与使用 Pt CE（7.50%）的 DSC 的光伏性能相媲美。此外，碳化物催化剂对于新的有机氧化还原对 T(2)/T(-)的再生表现出高于 Pt 的催化活性。使用 TiC 和 VC-MC CE 的 T(2)/T(-) DSC 的 PCE 分别为 4.96%和 5.15%，远高于使用 Pt CE 的 DSC（3.66%）。这项工作扩展了潜在 CE 催化剂的列表，这有助于降低 DSC 的成本，从而鼓励对其进行基础研究和商业应用。
