Stainless steel mesh-based flexible quasi-solid dye-sensitized solar cells

A new type of stainless steel mesh-based flexible quasi-solid dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) was designed and fabricated by using electrospun TiO2 nanofibers web as a light scattering layer and stainless steel foil coated with polypyrrole (PPy) nanoparticles as counter electrode. The photovoltaic performance measurements showed that electrospun TiO2 nanofibers web was propitious to light harvesting ability and energy conversion efficiency. Cyclic voltammogram measurement revealed that PPy electrode possessed smaller charge-transfer resistance and higher electrocatalytic activity for the I2/I− redox reaction than that of Pt electrode. A overall energy conversion efficiency (η) of 2.36% was obtained based on a DSSC with N719 dye as sensitizer and PPy nanoparticles coated on the stainless steel foil as counter electrode, which attained 84% of the η value (2.80%) of the quasi-solid DSSC with Pt foil as counter electrode.