Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 6, 2026
Electrospinning of Photocatalytic Electrodes for Dye-sensitized Solar Cells
Published on: June 28, 2017
Dissolution Engineering of Platinum Alloy Counter Electrodes in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
Qunwei Tang1,2, Huihui Zhang3,4, Yuanyuan Meng3,4
1Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry and Technology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100 (P.R. China). tangqunwei@ouc.edu.cn.
Abstract:
The dissolution of platinum (Pt) has been one of the heart issues in developing advanced dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). We present here the experimental realization of stable counter-electrode (CE) electrocatalysts by alloying Pt with transition metals for enhanced dissolution resistance to state-of-the-art iodide/triiodide (I(-)/I3(-)) redox electrolyte. Our focus is placed on the systematic studies of dissolution engineering for PtM0.05 (M=Ni, Co, Fe, Pd, Mo, Cu, Cr, and Au) alloy CE electrocatalysts along with mechanism analysis from thermodynamical aspects, yielding more negative Gibbs free energies for the dissolution reactions of transition metals. The competitive reactions between transition metals with iodide species (I3(-), I2) could protect the Pt atoms from being dissolved by redox electrolyte and therefore remain the high catalytic activity of the Pt electrode.
