Synthesis of highly photo-catalytic and electro-catalytic active textile structured carbon electrode and its application in DSSCs

Due to the growing need of portable smart devices, textile based solar cells have gained widespread attention in the field of wearable electronics. Here, we have demonstrated facile fabrication of metal free DSSCs by printing cotton, polyester and linen fabric counter electrodes with highly photo catalytic and electro catalytic active mesoporous carbon composite composed of highly conductive acid functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes decorated with mesoporous activated charcoal. Different mesoporous carbon structures were formulated by varying the concentration of activated charcoal intercalated in the acid functionalized MWCNT matrix. The mesoporous carbon composite with high level of porosity and oxygen rich surface exhibits low charge transfer resistance and excellent electro-catalytic activity for the reduction of tri-iodide ions. The mesoporous carbon composite exhibited 52% higher photo catalytic activity than the acid modified MWCNT. Besides that, in-depth comparison was carried out in between different kinds of textile fabrics coated with the carbon composite. The slight variation in the microporous structures and surface characteristics of cotton, polyester and linen fabrics led to marginal difference in the electrochemical and photovoltaic performance of DSSCs. High mobility of gel electrolyte within the porous structure of mesoporous carbon and textile fabrics assembly demonstrated low RCT of 0.82 Ω, 0.77 Ω and 1.37 Ω for cotton, polyester and linen respectively. The obtained photovoltaic conversion efficiency of cotton, polyester and linen based DSSCs using gel electrolyte were 6.06%, 6.26% and 5.80% respectively. The suggested TCO and Pt free DSSC assemblies paved a way to the facile fabrication of textile based DSSC.