Laser-scribed reduced graphene oxide as counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cell

Abstract

Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) has been attracted considerable attention in the field of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) to serve as a low cost and earth-abundant alternative to the conventional platinum-based counter electrodes. Recently direct laser writing technologies are emerging as an inexpensive, time-efficient and high-resolution method to produce catalytic rGO-based electrodes. Herein, we experimentally demonstrate that the laser-scribed rGO on ITO/PEN substrate was produced by a commercial LightScribe DVD burner and used as counter electrode for DSSC. SEM and Raman spectroscopy characterizations reveal that after laser-scribing rGO film presents a roughness structure with multi-layer curled or tilting graphenes. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectrum (EIS) analyses were also conducted to explore its electrocatalytic activity and charge-transfer properties. Finally, the DSSC based on rGO counter electrode achieved a power conversion efficiency of 2.07% under one sun AM 1.5 G illumination. This work developed a simple and promising laser-scribing method to prepare rGO-based counter electrode materials for DSSCs applications.

Keywords:

• Reduced graphene oxide
• laser-scribing
• counter electrode
• dye-sensitized solar cell

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province of China (20170540825), Foundation of Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (2016), Major Incubation Project of Shenyang Normal University (ZD201623) and Research Starting Foundation for Doctoral Program of Shenyang Normal University (054-55440109013).