Au-Coated Honeycomb Structure as an Efficient TCO-Free Counter-Electrode for Quantum-Dot-Sensitized Solar Cells

Van-Duong Dao; Van-Tien Bui; Minki Baek; The-Long Phan; Kijung Yong; Ho-Suk Choi

doi:10.1002/chem.201704374

Au-Coated Honeycomb Structure as an Efficient TCO-Free Counter-Electrode for Quantum-Dot-Sensitized Solar Cells

Chemistry. 2018 Jan 12;24(3):561-566. doi: 10.1002/chem.201704374. Epub 2017 Dec 14.

Authors

Van-Duong Dao^{1

2

3}, Van-Tien Bui^{1

4}, Minki Baek⁵, The-Long Phan⁶, Kijung Yong⁵, Ho-Suk Choi¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, Chungnam National University, 220 Gung-Dong, Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon, 305-764, Korea.
² Theoretical Physics Research Group, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
³ Faculty of Applied Sciences, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Korea.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering, Division of Advanced Nuclear Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, Korea.
⁶ Department of Physics and Oxide Research Center, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Yongin, 449-791, South Korea.

PMID: 29098733
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201704374

Abstract

This study reports the fabrication of a Petri dish patterned with cylindrical micro-cavities that are produced using a one-step solvent-immersion phase-separation process. The developed 3D honeycomb Petri dish is coated with a Au film through a sputtering method to be an efficient Au-coated FTO-free electrode for quantum-dot-sensitized solar cells. Due to the high specific active surface area of the electrode with the Au-coated honeycomb structure, the energy conversion efficiency of devices that use this electrode is 5.2 % compared to 4.4 and 4.7 % by devices using an Au-coated flat Petri dish and an Au-coated FTO electrode, respectively. This design strategy offers excellent potential for the fabrication of highly efficient counter electrodes with FTO-free substrates of flexible photovoltaic devices.

Keywords: electrodes; gold; phase separation; quantum dots; solar cells.