Recent Advances on Pt-Free Electro-Catalysts for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
Since Prof. Grätzel and co-workers achieved breakthrough progress on dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) in 1991, DSSCs have been extensively investigated and wildly developed as a potential renewable power source in the last two decades due to their low cost, low energy-intensive processing, and hig...
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doaj-0cb6e0f991164799a7e4e3cd042e56e22021-09-09T13:53:00ZengMDPI AGMolecules1420-30492021-08-01265186518610.3390/molecules26175186Recent Advances on Pt-Free Electro-Catalysts for Dye-Sensitized Solar CellsYi-June Huang0Prasanta Kumar Sahoo1Dung-Sheng Tsai2Chuan-Pei Lee3Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USADepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan, Deemed to Be University, Bhubaneswar 751030, IndiaDepartment of Electronic Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan City 32023, TaiwanDepartment of Applied Physics and Chemistry, University of Taipei, Taipei 10048, TaiwanSince Prof. Grätzel and co-workers achieved breakthrough progress on dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) in 1991, DSSCs have been extensively investigated and wildly developed as a potential renewable power source in the last two decades due to their low cost, low energy-intensive processing, and high roll-to-roll compatibility. During this period, the highest efficiency recorded for DSSC under ideal solar light (AM 1.5G, 100 mW cm<sup>−2</sup>) has increased from ~7% to ~14.3%. For the practical use of solar cells, the performance of photovoltaic devices in several conditions with weak light irradiation (e.g., indoor) or various light incident angles are also an important item. Accordingly, DSSCs exhibit high competitiveness in solar cell markets because their performances are less affected by the light intensity and are less sensitive to the light incident angle. However, the most used catalyst in the counter electrode (CE) of a typical DSSC is platinum (Pt), which is an expensive noble metal and is rare on earth. To further reduce the cost of the fabrication of DSSCs on the industrial scale, it is better to develop Pt-free electro-catalysts for the CEs of DSSCs, such as transition metallic compounds, conducting polymers, carbonaceous materials, and their composites. In this article, we will provide a short review on the Pt-free electro-catalyst CEs of DSSCs with superior cell compared to Pt CEs; additionally, those selected reports were published within the past 5 years.https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/17/5186carbonconductive polymerscounter electrodedye-sensitized solar cellshybrids compoundmetal compound |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Yi-June Huang Prasanta Kumar Sahoo Dung-Sheng Tsai Chuan-Pei Lee |
spellingShingle |
Yi-June Huang Prasanta Kumar Sahoo Dung-Sheng Tsai Chuan-Pei Lee Recent Advances on Pt-Free Electro-Catalysts for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Molecules carbon conductive polymers counter electrode dye-sensitized solar cells hybrids compound metal compound |
author_facet |
Yi-June Huang Prasanta Kumar Sahoo Dung-Sheng Tsai Chuan-Pei Lee |
author_sort |
Yi-June Huang |
title |
Recent Advances on Pt-Free Electro-Catalysts for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells |
title_short |
Recent Advances on Pt-Free Electro-Catalysts for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells |
title_full |
Recent Advances on Pt-Free Electro-Catalysts for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells |
title_fullStr |
Recent Advances on Pt-Free Electro-Catalysts for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells |
title_full_unstemmed |
Recent Advances on Pt-Free Electro-Catalysts for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells |
title_sort |
recent advances on pt-free electro-catalysts for dye-sensitized solar cells |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Molecules |
issn |
1420-3049 |
publishDate |
2021-08-01 |
description |
Since Prof. Grätzel and co-workers achieved breakthrough progress on dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) in 1991, DSSCs have been extensively investigated and wildly developed as a potential renewable power source in the last two decades due to their low cost, low energy-intensive processing, and high roll-to-roll compatibility. During this period, the highest efficiency recorded for DSSC under ideal solar light (AM 1.5G, 100 mW cm<sup>−2</sup>) has increased from ~7% to ~14.3%. For the practical use of solar cells, the performance of photovoltaic devices in several conditions with weak light irradiation (e.g., indoor) or various light incident angles are also an important item. Accordingly, DSSCs exhibit high competitiveness in solar cell markets because their performances are less affected by the light intensity and are less sensitive to the light incident angle. However, the most used catalyst in the counter electrode (CE) of a typical DSSC is platinum (Pt), which is an expensive noble metal and is rare on earth. To further reduce the cost of the fabrication of DSSCs on the industrial scale, it is better to develop Pt-free electro-catalysts for the CEs of DSSCs, such as transition metallic compounds, conducting polymers, carbonaceous materials, and their composites. In this article, we will provide a short review on the Pt-free electro-catalyst CEs of DSSCs with superior cell compared to Pt CEs; additionally, those selected reports were published within the past 5 years. |
topic |
carbon conductive polymers counter electrode dye-sensitized solar cells hybrids compound metal compound |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/17/5186 |
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