Catalytic materials manufactured by the polyol process for monolithic dye‐sensitized solar cells

Three types of screen-printable catalytic pastes were successfully prepared to be used as counterelectrode for monolithic dye solar cells encapsulated with glass frit. The electroless bottom-up method or so-called polyol process has been applied to fabricate thermally stable SnO2:Sb/Pt and carbon black/Pt nanocomposites. The catalytic and electric properties of these materials were compared with a new platinum-free type of carbon counterelectrode. The layers containing low platinum amounts (less than 5 µg/cm2) exhibit a very low charge transfer resistance of about 0·4 Ω · cm2. Also the conductive carbon layer shows an acceptable charge transfer resistance of 1·6 Ω · cm2. Additionally the catalytic layer containing porous carbon black reveals excellent sheet resistance below 5 Ω/□; this feature has enabled to work out a low cost counterelectrode which combined suitable catalytic and conductive properties. The layers have been characterized using following methods: electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy filter transmission electron microscopy (EF-TEM) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS). Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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