Application of polyaniline nanowires electrodeposited on the FTO glass substrate as a counter electrode for low-cost dye-sensitized solar cells

•Polyaniline nanowires were deposited onto FTO glass via cyclic voltammetry method.•The electro-catalytic activity PANI NWs electrode toward redox couple was improved.•Photovoltaic performance of PANI CEs DSSCs was equivalent with that of Pt CEs.•PANI NWs can be used an alternative CE in low cost dye-sensitized solar cells.

Polyaniline nanowires (PANI NWs) were deposited onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrate using the cyclic voltammetric method with aniline monomer precursor in HCl aqueous solution. The secondary oxidation peak plays an important role in polymerization of aniline monomer and the optimization of catalytic activity of PANI-based counter electrodes was achieved by controlling the number of cycles. The photovoltaic performance of the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with PANI NWs counter electrodes (CEs) was optimized at 4th cycles, and then following parameters were obtained: Jsc = 17.2 mA cm−2, Voc = 0.71 V, FF = 59.3%, and efficiency (η) = 7.24%. While, Jsc = 14.7 mA cm−2, Voc = 0.77 V, FF = 70.6%, and efficiency (η) = 7.98% in cells with Pt CEs. The PANI NWs were attractive as an alternative CEs for the low-cost DSSCs instead of Pt.

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