Porous, single crystalline titanium nitride nanoplates grown on carbon fibers: excellent counter electrodes for low-cost, high performance, fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells

An excellent, platinum free fiber counter electrode (CE) was successfully fabricated, consisting of porous, single crystalline titanium nitride (TiN) nanoplates grown on carbon fibers (CF). The fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells (FDSSCs) based on the TiN–CF CE show a high conversion efficiency of 7.20%, comparable or even superior to that of the Pt wire (6.23%).