Facile construction of high-electrocatalytic bilayer counter electrode for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells

To improve the mechanical rigidity of the electrocatalyst and assure a higher number density of catalytic sites of the counter electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs), we have extended widely applied titanium tetrachloride treatment to construct a rough scaffolding underlayer for the platinized counter electrode. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy images clearly depicted the platinum nanoparticles with a diameter of ca. 10 nm homogeneously distributed on the scaffolding underlayer of the bilayer counter electrode and thus led to a characteristically high surface roughness. The electocatalytic activity of this novel bilayer counter electrode was measured and compared with the corresponding properties of conventional sputtered Pt electrode. Interestingly, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry measurements further demonstrated the notably larger electrochemical active surface area and thereby higher electrocatalytic activity of the bilayer counter electrode. Consequently, under standard 1 sun illumination (100 mW cm(-2), AM 1.5), device with this bilayer counter electrode achieved a considerably improved fill factor of 0.67 and overall energy conversion efficiency of 7.09%, which was apparently higher than that of 0.60 and 6.37% for sputterd Pt electrode. Therefore, this present method paves a facile and inexpensive way to prepare high-electrocatalytic bilayer counter electrode in DSCs.