Single wall carbon nanotubes deposited on stainless steel sheet substrates as novel counter electrodes for ruthenium polypyridine based dye sensitized solar cells

Abstract

We report on the implementation of stainless steel foils coated with dispersed Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes as novel, low cost and highly efficient counter electrodes for dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). We use commercially available non purified nanotubes dispersed in water by ultrasonication and drop cast on stainless steel substrates. When implemented on a ruthenium based DSSC we obtain a high short circuit current density (J_sc= 9.21 mA cm⁻²), a good open circuit voltage (V_oc = 0.660 V) and a solar energy conversion efficiency of 3.92%. The above cited values are measured under a light flux of 100 mW cm⁻² generated by a solar simulator equipped with a filter AM 1.5. The obtained results are comparable to those attained using a stainless steel counter electrode sputtered with a 2 μm thick platinum film (J_sc 10.92 mA cm⁻², V_max = 0.66 V and η = 4.5%, AM 1.5).