A new electrochemically prepared composite counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract In this paper, we propose new counter electrodes for applications in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Polyaniline (PANi), tungsten trioxide (WO3), and their composite are deposited on indium thin oxide substrates using cyclic voltammetry technique and employed as counter electrodes that reached comparable and superior performances than Pt counter electrodes. These excellent results are achieved due to the high conductivity and electrocatalytic behavior of the prepared materials. Morphological, electrocatalytic, bonding structure, charge transfer properties, and photovoltaic characteristics are respectively investigated by field emission electron microscopy, cyclic voltammetry, Tafel analysis, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and current-voltage analysis. Our best DSSC that is fabricated from the WO3/PANi nanocomposite counter electrode demonstrated an efficiency of 6.78%, which is a 12.4% improvement in comparison with the Pt-based DSSC.