Rational screening low-cost counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells
Rational screening low-cost counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells
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合理筛选染料敏化太阳能电池低成本对电极
DOI：
10.1038/ncomms2547
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发表时间：
2013-03-01
影响因子：
16.6
通讯作者：
Yang, Hua Gui
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Hou, Yu;Wang, Dong;Yang, Hua Gui
染料敏化太阳能电池因其制造简单、成本效益高和太阳能转换效率高等优点而引起了人们的广泛关注。贵金属铂通常用作电解液中氧化还原介质的催化对电极。不幸的是，铂金价格昂贵，而且对于长期应用来说是不可持续的。因此，研究人员面临着开发低成本和丰富的替代能源的挑战。到目前为止，由于对氧化还原介质在不同对电极上的电催化过程缺乏了解，使得对非铂对电极的合理筛选受到阻碍。在这里，我们利用第一性原理量子化学计算，研究了氧化还原介体的电催化过程，并预测了电势半导体对电极的电催化活性。在理论预测的基础上，我们成功地使用了铁锈(α-Fe_2O_3)作为一种新的对电极催化剂，它对三碘的还原表现出良好的电催化活性，其速度与铂相当。
Dye-sensitized solar cells have attracted intense research attention owing to their ease of fabrication, cost-effectiveness and high efficiency in converting solar energy. Noble platinum is generally used as catalytic counter electrode for redox mediators in electrolyte solution. Unfortunately, platinum is expensive and non-sustainable for long-term applications. Therefore, researchers are facing with the challenge of developing low-cost and earth-abundant alternatives. So far, rational screening of non-platinum counter electrodes has been hamstrung by the lack of understanding about the electrocatalytic process of redox mediators on various counter electrodes. Here, using first-principle quantum chemical calculations, we studied the electrocatalytic process of redox mediators and predicted electrocatalytic activity of potential semiconductor counter electrodes. On the basis of theoretical predictions, we successfully used rust (α-Fe2O3) as a new counter electrode catalyst, which demonstrates promising electrocatalytic activity towards triiodide reduction at a rate comparable to platinum.