Flexible carbon nanotube-based composite plates as efficient monolithic counter electrodes for dye solar cells

We demonstrate a general approach to fabricate a novel low-cost, lightweight and flexible nanocomposite foil that can be effectively implemented as a monolithic counter-electrode in dye solar cells. The pivotal aim of this work was to replace not only the platinum catalyzer film, but even the underlying transparent conductive oxide-coated substrate, by means of a monolithic counter electrode based on carbonaceous materials. According to our approach, a proper dispersion of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) has been added to a dilute polypropylene solution in toluene. The composite solution has been then adequately mixed and subsequently dried by means of a controlled solvent evaporation process; the resulting powder has been modeled by compression molding into thin plates. Four different series of plates have been realized by tuning the carbon nanotubes concentration from 5 wt % to 20 wt %. Finally, a specifically setup reactive ion etching treatment with oxygen plasma has been carried out onto the plate surface to remove the residual polymeric capping layer and allow the embedded CNTs to protrude on top of the surface. A fine-tuning of the morphological features has been made possible by adjusting the plasma etching conditions. For all the treated surfaces, the most meaningful electrochemical parameters have been quantitatively analyzed by means of both electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry measurements. An as high as 13.8 mA/cm(2) photocurrent density, along with a solar conversion efficiency of 6.67%, has been measured for a dye solar cell mounting a counter-electrode based on a 20 wt % CNT nanocomposite.