Thermal Evaporation of Sb2Se3 as Novel Counter Electrode for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Sb2Se3 was fabricated with a facile atmospheric pressure thermal evaporation procedure as counter electrode (CE) for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The introduction of a carbon nanoparticle (CNP) film as substrate was proved to facilitate Sb2Se3 deposition, resulting in the formation of a Sb2Se3 layer on the surface of carbon nanoparticles (denoted as CNP-Sb2Se3). Electrochemical characterizations demonstrate the intrinsic catalytic ability of Sb2Se3 and better electrocatalytic activity and stability of Sb2Se3 deposited on CNP film in catalyzing I3- reduction. Evaporation temperature was found to affect the electrocatalytic activity of CNP-Sb2Se3 and a lower temperature of 400oC was proved to be better in our case. As a result, the best performing DSSC with CNP-Sb2Se3 CE yields a power conversion efficiency of 6.26%, which is comparable to that based on Pt CE (6.47%).

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