PbS as a Highly Catalytic Counter Electrode for Polysulfide-Based Quantum Dot Solar Cells

Citations Over TimeTop 1% of 2011 papers

Abstract

We show that a significant improvement of the light to electric power conversion efficiency of quantum dot sensitized solar cells with a polysulfide electrolyte can be achieved when a PbS counter electrode is used. An acid pretreatment of a Pb metal foil followed by dipping into polysulfide solution provides a counter electrode which improves the short circuit current, open circuit voltage, and fill factor compared to commonly used Pt electrodes. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy reveals a low charge transfer resistance between polysulfide and PbS, indicating the high catalytic activity of PbS. Moreover, a comparison with reported charge transfer resistance values at open circuit potential for alternative counter electrodes for polysulfide shows that PbS is the most catalytic of all. For a CdSe quantum dot sensitized mesoporous TiO2 electrode, we achieved a conversion efficiency of 3% using PbS as a counter electrode.

Related Papers

• → PtRu nanofiber alloy counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells(2014)69 cited
• → Effect of solvents in liquid electrolyte on the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells(2007)77 cited
• → Effect of Nanotube Morphologies on Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Based Counter Electrode for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell(2017)6 cited
• → Intrinsic open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current of ferroelectric photovoltaic effect(2020)3 cited
• → Synergistic power conversion efficiency contribution of counter electrode components in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells(2022)1 cited