Facile synthesis of tungsten carbide nanorods and its application as counter electrode in dye sensitized solar cells
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2015
Abstract
Tungsten carbide nanorods (WC-NRs) are synthesized by pseudomorphic transformation of chemically synthesized W3O8 nanorods using a high-temperature method. The WC-NRs was introduced into dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) as counter electrode (CE) catalyst to replace the expensive platinum (Pt). The synthesized WC-NRs were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), BET surface area analysis and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) measurements. The electrochemical properties of WC-NRs counter electrode were studied using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. The photovoltaic performance of the DSSC with WC-NRs counter electrode was evaluated under simulated standard global AM 1.5G sunlight (100 mW/cm2). The solar to electrical energy conversion efficiency (η) of the WC-NRs with binder and binder free based DSSC was found to be 1.92% and 0.59% respectively. The cell performance can be attributed to the WC-NRs network, catalytic redox activity and 1-D efficient charge-transfer network. Such WC-NRs configuration as CE provides a potential feasibility for counter electrodes in DSSC applications.
Keywords
Tungsten carbide nanorods, Counter electrode, Electrochemical properties, Large surface area, Catalytic activity
Divisions
PHYSICS
Funders
Ministry of Higher Education and University of Malaya: High Impact Research Grant (UM.C/625/1/HIR/MOHE/SC/21)
Publication Title
Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing
Volume
39
Publisher
Elsevier