Nitrogen-doped carbon and iron carbide nanocomposites as cost-effective counter electrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells†
Abstract
Hierarchical nanocomposites of iron carbide (Fe3C) encaged in nitrogen-doped carbon (N–C) were prepared by using a simple carbothermal reduction of iron(II) oxalate (FeC2O4) nanowires in the presence of cyanamide (NH2CN) at 600 °C. Such Fe3C@N–C nanocomposites delivered fair electrocatalytic activity for the I3−/I− redox reaction. As a result, when explored as cost-effective counter electrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells, an efficiency of 7.36% was achieved, which was comparable to that of the cell with a Pt–FTO counter electrode (7.15%) under the same experimental conditions. The good electrochemical performance is attributed to the synergistic effect of the combination of N–C and Fe3C and the one dimensional configuration, which endows the nanocomposites with more interfacial active sites and improved electron transfer efficiency for the reduction of I3−/I−.