A flexible polypyrrole-coated fabric counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells

The current dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) technology is mostly based on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) coated glass substrate. The main problem with the FTO glass substrate is its rigidity, heavyweight and high cost. DSSCs with a fabric as substrate not only offer the advantages of flexibility, stretchability and light mass, but also provide the opportunities for easy implantation to wearable electronics. Herein, a novel fabric counter electrode (CE) for DSSCs has been reported employing a daily-used cotton fabric as substrate and polypyrrole (PPy) as catalytic material. Nickel (Ni) is deposited on the cotton fabric as metal contact by a simple electroless plating method to replace the expensive FTO. PPy is synthesized by in situ polymerization of pyrrole monomer on the Ni-coated fabric. The fabric CE shows sufficient catalytic activity towards the reduction of I3−. The DSSC fabricated using the fabric CE exhibits power conversion efficiency of ∼3.30% under AM 1.5.