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Free‐Standing Graphene/Conducting Polymer Hybrid Cathodes as FTO and Pt‐Free Electrode for Quasi‐State Dye Sensitized Solar Cells
Author(s) -
Ramalingam Karthick,
Panchu SarojiniJeeva,
Salunke Ashish Shivaji,
Muthukumar Kamalambika,
Ramanujam Ashwin,
Muthiah Selvaraj
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
chemistryselect
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 34
ISSN - 2365-6549
DOI - 10.1002/slct.201600874
Subject(s) - dye sensitized solar cell , materials science , pedot:pss , cathode , graphene , electrode , auxiliary electrode , indium tin oxide , tin oxide , conductive polymer , chemical engineering , sheet resistance , energy conversion efficiency , polyaniline , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , polymerization , polymer , doping , electrolyte , composite material , layer (electronics) , chemistry , engineering
Abstract Highly conducting freestanding graphene (FSG) was synthesized by the simple vacuum filtration method and utilized as a cathode current collector for (fluorine doped tin oxide) FTO free quasi‐dye sensitized solar cell (q‐DSSC). Subsequently,conducting polymers (CPs) viz., polyaniline (PANI) and poly(3,4‐ethylene‐di‐oxythiophene) (PEDOT) was decorated on FSG surface by electrochemical polymerization which acts as a electrocatalytst for Pt free q‐DSSC. Entirely, the FSG/CPs affords as a novel cathode architecture for FTO/Pt free electrode for q‐DSSCs. Remarkably, the FSG paper electrode exhibits lower sheet resistance (9‐11 Ω sq ‐1 ) than the FTO which was directly utilized as current collector. Interestingly, the FSG/CPs based cathode shows an improved electro‐catalytic behaviour towards tri‐iodide reduction and in particularly, the photovoltaic performance of FSG/PEDOT shows power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.4 % compared with Pt/FTO of 5.1 %. It can be stated that synergetic effect of FSG/PEDOT proves to be a cost effective and efficientsubstitute for cathodes in q‐DSSC.