A novel, facile, and low-cost method was developed for manufacturing Pt counter electrodes (CEs) of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) on the indium tin oxide-coated polyethylene terephthalate (ITO-PET). This press-transferring method reconciled the temperature conflict between the sintering process of thermal decomposition of H(2)PtCl(6) and plastic substrates. Cyclic voltammograms, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, transmittance spectra and photovoltaic performance were characterized to investigate the transferred Pt CEs. It was found that the transferred Pt CEs on ITO-PET exhibited an excellent catalytic activity comparable with traditional electrodes on FTO glasses. On the front-side, an illuminated conversion efficiency of 7.21% was reached with more than 94% efficiency of conventional thermally deposited Pt CEs on FTO glasses, and on the back-side, the illuminated conversion efficiency was 4.86%, which was higher than that for conventional electrodes.
We, for the first time, prepared a flexible photoelectrode for CdS/CdSe quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs). A power conversion efficiency of 3.47% was achieved under AM 1.5G illumination for a sandwich type QDSSC consisting of this flexible photoelectrode, Cu(2)S counter electrode and polysulfide electrolyte between the electrodes.
Abstract A novel phytic acid-modified corn stalk-composite superabsorbent (PACS-g-p(AA-AM-VP)) with water absorbency of 391g/g, water retention around 30% at 200min under 90°C, adsorption capacities of 284mg/g and 448 mg/g for Ni(II) and Cu (II), respectively, was synthesized by graft copolymerization of acrylamide(AM), vinyl pyrrolidone(VP) and itaconic acid(IA) with phytic acid-modified corn stalk (PACS) in aqueous solution, using N,N-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) as a crosslinker and ammonium persulfate(APS) and sodium bisulfite(SBS) as redox initiator. Factors influencing water absorbency and water retention of PACS-g-p(AA-AM-VP), such as PACS amount, initiator amount, crosslinker amount, neutralization degree of IA, IA/VP mass ratio and IA/AM mass ratio, were investigated. Morphologies and structure of PACS-g-p(AA-AM-VP) were characterized by FTIR and SEM. FTIR spectra indicate the structure of phytic acid-modified corn stalk graft-copolymer. SEM data shows that fiber structure of corn stalk is partially destroyed after phytic acid modification under ultrasonic wave. PACS-g-p(AA-AM-VP) has a coarse, fluffy and porous structure, facilitating the permeation of water and heavy metal ions into the polymeric network. Given these properties, PACS-g-p(AA-AM-VP) can be extensively applied in agriculture and horticulture as a water-retaining and soil remediation material which increases agricultural irrigation efficiency and remediates heavy metal-contaminated soil due to its low cost, environmental friendliness, high water retention and good adsorption for heavy metal ions.
We fabricated a front-side illuminated CdS/CdSe quantum dots co-sensitized solar cell based on TiO2 nanotube arrays. The freestanding TiO2 nanotube arrays were first detached from anodic oxidized Ti foils and then transferred to the fluorine-doped tin oxide to form photoanodes. An opaque Cu2S with high electrochemical activity was used as the counter electrode. A photovoltaic conversion efficiency as high as 3.01% under one sun illumination has been achieved after optimizing the deposition time of CdSe quantum dots and the length of the TiO2 nanotube arrays. It is observed that the power conversion efficiency of quantum dots sensitized solar cells from the front-side illumination mode (3.01%) is much higher than that of the back-side illumination mode (1.32%) owing to the poor catalytic activity of Pt to polysulfide electrolytes and light absorption by the electrolytes for the latter.
'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(23.036 .093 25.536)'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(45.87 1.273 16.18)'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(69.945 .996 12.078)'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(20.66 -19.689 31.932)'/%3e%3c/svg%3e)