The simple and easy way to manufacture counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells

We previously developed poly-N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (PVP)-capped Pt nanoclusters on ITO glass via a simple “2-step dip coating process” as counter electrode for DSSC. This new counter electrode was examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and current–voltage curve (I–V curve).The TEM results revealed that PVP-capped Pt nanoclusters’ size is about 3 nm, and the amount of Pt deposited on ITO glass is about 5 μg/cm2. Comparing with sputtered Pt and Solaronix thermal cluster Pt-catalyst T/SP, the PVP-capped Pt counter electrode has lower amount of Pt deposited on TCO glass, more positive potential of tri-iodide reduction, and better performance for the charge-transfer resistance (RCT) and the cell efficiency (η).