Highly Efficient Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells with Nonplatinized Graphene Oxide/Metal

A key technological issue related to the implementation of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is the replacement of Pt at the counter electrodes with an inexpensive and electro-chemically stable alternative. Carbon based nanomaterials could be promising candidates, but in practice they exhibit inadequate device performance. Here, we report very thin graphene oxide (GO)/metal hybrid films as transparent counter electrodes for high-efficiency DSSCs. Transparent GO/Pt and GO/Au hybrid films showed cell efficiencies of 9.2 and 9.0%, respectively (improvements of 9.5 and 7.1% over conventional Pt counter electrodes). More interestingly, highly stable DSSCs with GO hybrid films from relatively inexpensive metals such as Cu and Ni have been demonstrated with efficiency values comparable to Pt counter electrodes. The results reported in this study should enable low-cost fabrication of DSSCs because it allows the use of relatively inexpensive metals such as Au, Cu, Ni, and Ag that could not be previously employed in DSSCs with iodide/tri-iodide electrolyte due to corrosion.