Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 17, 2026
Harvesting Solar Energy by Means of Charge-Separating Nanocrystals and Their Solids
Published on: August 23, 2012
Composite counter electrode based on nanoparticulate PbS and carbon black: towards quantum dot-sensitized solar cells
Yueyong Yang1, Lifeng Zhu, Huicheng Sun
1Key Laboratory for Renewable Energy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory for New Energy Materials and Devices, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
PbS/carbon black (CB) composite counter electrode (CE) has been fabricated by a low cost and low temperature processable method using the wet chemistry synthesized PbS nanoparticles. The nanosized PbS in the composite CE provides a large area of catalytic sites, and the chain-type CB framework acts as an excellent electrical tunnel for fast electron transport from an external circuit to highly catalytic PbS nanoparticles. The optimized PbS/CB composite CE shows a charge transfer resistance (R(CT)) as low as 10.28 Ω cm², which is an order of magnitude lower than the value obtained in the previous study on pure PbS CE. The CdS/CdSe quantum dot-sensitized solar cells with the PbS/CB composite CE achieve a photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 3.91% and no degradation of the efficiency over 1000 h under room conditions.
