Yang Fengxia, Tian Xueli, Gu Yanru, Zhang Keqiang, Liu Lu
Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Tianjin 300191 China
College of Resources and Environment, Northeast Agricultural University Haerbin 150036 China.
RSC Adv. 2019 Aug 12;9(43):24880-24887. doi: 10.1039/c9ra03559a. eCollection 2019 Aug 8.
Binary metal compounds with a spinel structure could improve the electron transport, activating adsorption and active sites for electrocatalytic reaction. Furthermore, the electrocatalytic activity of electroactive materials also depends on their morphology and nanostructure. Herein, this work reported the fabrication of NiCoO mesoporous nanoflowers and mesoporous nanospheres and their application as promising counter electrode (CE) electrocatalysts in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The as-prepared NiCoO mesoporous nanoflower contains abundant open space between nanosheets, generating the 3D porous nanostructure. When investigated as CE materials, NiCoO nanoflowers exhibited high charge-transfer ability and intrinsic catalytic activity. The DSSC with NiCoO nanoflowers displayed a much higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.32% than that based on the NiCoO nanosphere CE (PCE = 5.58%), even comparable with that of commercial Pt CE (7.54%).
具有尖晶石结构的二元金属化合物可以改善电子传输，激活电催化反应的吸附和活性位点。此外，电活性材料的电催化活性还取决于它们的形态和纳米结构。在此，本工作报道了NiCoO介孔纳米花和介孔纳米球的制备及其作为染料敏化太阳能电池（DSSC）中有前景的对电极（CE）电催化剂的应用。所制备的NiCoO介孔纳米花在纳米片之间含有丰富的开放空间，形成了三维多孔纳米结构。当作为CE材料进行研究时，NiCoO纳米花表现出高电荷转移能力和固有催化活性。具有NiCoO纳米花的DSSC显示出比基于NiCoO纳米球CE的DSSC（PCE = 5.58%）更高的功率转换效率（PCE），为7.32%，甚至与商业Pt CE（7.54%）相当。
