Nickel foam supported Pt as highly flexible counter electrode of dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract In this paper, Pt nanoparticles are deposited on nickel foam by the mild displacement reaction occurring at room temperature. Thus prepared nickel foam supported Pt is used as efficient and highly flexible counter electrode of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), the performance of which can be enhanced by simply prolonging the reaction time. The results denote that when the reaction time is just 40 min, the nickel foam supported Pt has exhibited better catalytic activities than the commonly used polyethylene naphthalate polymers supported Pt. The deposition of Pt is investigated by the scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy and UV–Vis spectra, and the catalytic activities of fabricated flexible Pt counter electrode are verified by electrochemical impedance spectra and cyclic voltammetry curves. The approach proposed here is facile and can be used for the large scale fabrication of efficient flexible counter electrode in DSSCs.