Tungsten Disulfide Used in Dye-sensitized Solar Cell

Tungsten disulfide is applied in dye-sensitized solar cell as counter electrodes, being considered as a potential material to replace the traditional Pt electrode. Such a dye-sensitized solar cell has high photoelectric transformation efficiency.

Dye-sensitized cell (DSSC) is a new type of solar cell with low cost and high photoelectric conversion efficiency. It usually consists of three parts: a dye-containing electrode of porous nanocrystalline titanium dioxide film, an electrolyte solution containing KI (or Li) together with I2, and a transparent conductive glass coated with Pt. Pt is expensive and will be corroded in DSSCs, so researchers are looking for other materials to replace it.

Tungsten disulfide successfully attracts the attention of the researchers. It can be made into counter electrodes to improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency of DSSCs. The following are some research on it.

1. Counter electrodes of tungsten disulfide have good electrochemical catalytic activity in the redox reaction of I-andI-3. However, tungsten disulfide has low conductivity, which leads to the small filling factor of DSSCs with it. Usually, the greater the filling factor, the better the conductivity of DSSCs.

2. Researchers have modified tungsten disulfide with multi-walled carbon nanotubes, which provides a solution to the above problems. The modified tungsten disulfide has higher photoelectric conversion efficiency. It is coated on multi-walled carbon nanotubes by hydrothermal method and used as counter electrodes in DSSCs. And the filling factor and conductivity of the DSSCs are both increased.

3. Tungsten disulfide is dispersed in hexagonal mesoporous silica by researchers, so as to improve the catalytic activity and conductivity of it. Carbon addition is a simple and effective method to improve the conductivity of tungsten disulfide.

4. Researchers add appropriate amount of acetylene black to tungsten disulfide to make counter electrodes. The conductivity of the electrode is improved with the addition of acetylene black. And the filling factor of DSSC that using tungsten disulfide as counter electrodes is also increased significantly.

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