Preparation of a Counter Electrode with<i>P</i>-Type NiO and Its Applications in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

Abstract

This study investigates the applicability of a counter electrode with a P -type semiconductor oxide (such as NiO) on a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The counter electrode is fabricated by depositing an NiO film on top of a Pt film, which has been deposited on a Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass using an ion-sputtering coater (or E-beam evaporator), using a simple spin coating method. This study also examines the effect of the average thickness of<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msub><mml:mtext>TiO</mml:mtext><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:math>film deposited on a working electrode upon the power conversion efficiency of a DSSC. This study shows that the power conversion efficiency of a DSSC with a Pt(E)/NiO counter electrode (4.28%) substantially exceeds that of a conventional DSSC with a Pt(E) counter electrode (3.16%) on which a Pt film was deposited using an E-beam evaporator. This result is attributed to the fact that the NiO film coated on the Pt(E) counter electrode improves the electrocatalytic activity of the counter electrode.