Graphene/carbon nanotubes composites as a counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells

As an alternative platinum counter electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), carbon materials based counter electrode were prepared using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs)/graphene nano-sheets (GNS) composite by simple doctor blade method. We found that the photovoltaic performance was strongly influenced by the concentration of GNS in composite electrode. The composite electrode with 60% MWNTs and 40% GNS based DSSCs showed the maximum power conversion efficiency of 4.0% while sputter deposited platinum counter electrode based DSSCs showed a power conversion efficiency of 5.0%.

► MWNTs/graphene nanosheets (GNS) composites were used as counter electrodes for DSSCs.
► The mechanism of electrode formation and the appreciable electrochemical findings are meticulously explained in this paper.
► A rare effort to achieve conversion efficiency as high as 4% using these composite counter electrodes is a new direction to research related to replace expensive counter electrodes like platinum.