Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 790-784, Korea.
Nanoscale. 2014 Mar 21;6(6):3296-301. doi: 10.1039/c3nr05705d. Epub 2014 Feb 7.
Cauliflower-like tin oxide (SnO2) hollow microspheres (HMS) sensitized with multilayer quantum dots (QDs) as photoanode and alternative stable, low-cost counter electrode are employed for the first time in QD-sensitized solar cells (QDSCs). Cauliflower-like SnO2 hollow spheres mainly consist of 50 nm-sized agglomerated nanoparticles; they possess a high internal surface area and light scattering in between the microspheres and shell layers. This makes them promising photoanode material for both QDSCs and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method and chemical bath deposition (CBD) are used for QD-sensitizing the SnO2 microspheres. Additionally, carbon-nanofiber (CNF) with a unique structure is used as an alternative counter electrode (CE) and compared with the standard platinum (Pt) CE. Their electrocatalytic properties are measured using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and Tafel-polarization. Under 1 sun illumination, solar cells made with hollow SnO2 photoanode sandwiched with the stable CNF CE showed a power conversion efficiency of 2.5% in QDSCs and 3.0% for DSCs, which is quite promising with the standard Pt CE (QDSCs: 2.1%, and DSCs: 3.6%).
菜花状氧化锡（SnO2）空心微球（HMS）敏化的多层量子点（QD）作为光阳极和替代稳定、低成本的对电极，首次应用于量子点敏化太阳能电池（QDSCs）。菜花状 SnO2 空心球主要由 50nm 大小的团聚纳米粒子组成；它们具有高的内表面积和微球之间以及壳层之间的光散射。这使得它们成为 QDSCs 和染料敏化太阳能电池（DSCs）的有前途的光阳极材料。逐层离子吸附和反应（SILAR）法和化学浴沉积（CBD）用于 QD 敏化 SnO2 微球。此外，具有独特结构的碳纳米纤维（CNF）用作替代对电极（CE），并与标准铂（Pt）CE 进行比较。使用电化学阻抗谱（EIS）、循环伏安法（CV）和 Tafel 极化测量它们的电催化性能。在 1 个太阳光照下，由空心 SnO2 光阳极夹在稳定的 CNF CE 之间的太阳能电池在 QDSCs 中的功率转换效率为 2.5%，在 DSCs 中的效率为 3.0%，这与标准 Pt CE 相当（QDSCs：2.1%，DSCs：3.6%）。
