A paper-based electrode using a graphene dot/PEDOT:PSS composite for flexible solar cells

By Chuan-Pei Lee, K. Lai, Chin-An Lin, Chun-Ting Li, Kuo-Chuan Ho, Chih‐I Wu, S. Lau, Jr-hau He. 2017

148 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract We have synthesized a metal-free composite ink that contains graphene dots (GDs) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) that can be used on paper to serve as the counter electrode in a flexible dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). This paper-based GD/PEDOT:PSS electrode is low-cost, light-weight, flexible, environmentally friendly, and easy to cut and process for device fabrication. We determined the GD/PEDOT:PSS composite effectively fills the dense micro-pores in the paper substrate, which leads to improved carrier transport in the electrode and a 3-fold enhanced cell efficiency as compared to the paper electrode made with sputtered Pt. Moreover, the DSSC with the paper electrode featuring the GD/PEDOT:PSS composite did not fail in photovoltaic tests even after bending the electrode 150 times, whereas the device made with the Pt-based paper electrode decreased in efficiency by 45% after such manipulation. These exceptional properties make the metal-free GD/PEDOT:PSS composite ink a promising electrode material for a wide variety of flexible electronic applications.

Subfields: Materials Chemistry, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/06ae67d92165f6f6a13d4ae2783bdeabdb3cec79