Earth-abundant Cu2SnSe3 thin film counter electrode for high-efficiency quantum dot-sensitized solar cells

•A new solution-based route to high crystalline quality CTSe thin film is presented.•Potential viability of CTSe for catalytic use in polysulfide system is demonstrated.•CTSe exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity for S2−/Sn2− redox couple.•QDSCs using CTSe CE show comparable efficiency relative to Cu2S.

We present herein a new facile solution-phase route to the growth of high crystalline quality Cu2SnSe3 (CTSe) thin film on a conductive substrate and demonstrate for the first time its promising application as an efficient counter electrode (CE) in liquid-junction quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSCs). Dissolving Cu2Se and SnSe powders in the thiol-amine mixture forms a homogeneous CTSe molecular precursor solution. High-quality crystalline CTSe thin film electrode can be readily deposited from the above solution via a low-temperature heating step. Powder X-ray diffraction experiment combined with Raman spectroscopy revealed that the resulting CTSe has the monoclinic crystal structure. Electrochemical measurements, impedance spectroscopy, Tafel polarization, and cyclic voltammetry verified that CTSe possesses fascinating electrocatalytic activity for S2−/Sn2− redox couple in aqueous polysulfide electrolyte solution, and is superior to the traditional electrocatalyst, Pt, both in catalytic activity and in electrochemical stability under prolonged potential cycling, rationalizing the improved solar cell device performance, i.e., QDSCs employing CTSe CE showed more than a two-fold improvement in power conversion efficiency relative to that of Pt-based cells. The excellent catalytic performance along with the ease of solution processing of these earth-abundant CTSe materials make them a distinctive choice among the various CEs studied.

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