Electrospinning preparation of cobalt-based carbon nanofibers with incorporated nitrogen as cost-effective counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract Searching for a low-cost and stable counter electrode catalyst is of great significance for dye-sensitized solar cells. In this work, a novel electrochemical catalyst of cobalt-based carbon nanofibers with incorporated nitrogen prepared by electrospinning technique has been introduced as an efficient Pt-free counter electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells for the first time. By introducing cobalt and nitrogen in the carbon nanofibers network, the electrocatalytic activity of the counter electrode is improved. The dye-sensitized solar cells fabricated using cobalt-based carbon nanofibers with incorporated nitrogen composite as counter electrode exhibit a high power conversion efficiency of 9.05% measured at 100 mW cm –2 illumination, which is significantly higher than that of the most commonly used but expensive Pt counterpart (7.1%). The present work highlights that cobalt-based carbon nanofibers with incorporated nitrogen composite is a suitable alternative counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells.