Well-aligned NiPt alloy counter electrodes for high-efficiency dye-sensitized solar cell applications

Abstract Development of cost-effective and robust counter electrodes (CEs) is a persistent objective for high-efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). To achieve this goal, we present here the hydrothermal synthesis of well-aligned NiPt alloy CEs, which is templated by ZnO nanowires and nanosheets. The preliminary results demonstrate that NiPt alloy electrodes are featured by increased charge-transfer processes and electrocatalytic activity in comparison with expensive Pt CE, yielding power conversion efficiencies of 8.29% and 7.41% in corresponding DSSCs with NiPt nanowire and nanosheet alloy CEs, respectively. Additionally, the NiPt alloy CEs also display extraordinary dissolution-resistant ability when suffering long-term utilization in liquid-junction DSSCs.