Polypyrrole-coated cotton fabrics prepared by electrochemical polymerization as textile counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells

•Polypyrrole is deposited on Ni-coated fabric by electrochemical polymerization.•PPy/Ni-coated fabric is highly conductive.•DSSC fabricated using PPy/Ni-coated fabric counter electrode exhibits an efficiency up to 3.83%.

Textile-based wearable electronics provides the combined advantages of both electronics and textiles, such as flexibility, stretchability and lightweight. Much effort has been dedicated to achieve flexible photovoltaic power for wearable electronics. Here, we have demonstrated polypyrrole (PPy) coated cotton fabrics as textile counter electrode (CE) in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). PPy is deposited on the Ni-coated cotton fabrics as catalytic material by electrochemical polymerization of pyrrole. The highly conductive PPy-coated fabric electrode with a surface resistance of 5.0 Ω sq−1 shows reasonable catalytic activity for the reduction of triiodide ion. The DSSC fabricated with the PPy-coated fabric CE exhibits a power conversion efficiency as high as ∼3.83% under AM 1.5 illumination.

Graphical abstractDSSC fabricated with PPy-coated fabric CE exhibits a power conversion efficiency as high as ∼3.83% under AM 1.5 illumination.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide