Soft-Template Simple Synthesis of Ordered Mesoporous Titanium Nitride-Carbon Nanocomposite for High Performance Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Counter Electrodes
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SCOPUS
- Title
- Soft-Template Simple Synthesis of Ordered Mesoporous Titanium Nitride-Carbon Nanocomposite for High Performance Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Counter Electrodes
- Authors
- Ramasamy, E; Jo, C; Anthonysamy, A; Jeong, I; Kim, JK; Lee, J
- Date Issued
- 2012-05-08
- Publisher
- ACS Publications
- Abstract
- Ordered mesoporous titanium nitride-carbon (denoted as OM TiN-C) nanocomposite with high surface area (389 m(2) g(-1)) and uniform hexagonal mesopores (ca. 5.5 nm) was facilely synthesized via the soft-template method. As a structure-directing agent, Pluronic F127 triblock copolymer formed an ordered structure with inorganic precursors, resol polymer, and prehydrolyzed TiCl4, followed by a successive heating at 700 degrees C under nitrogen and ammonia flow. In this study, the amorphous carbon within the parent OM TiO2-C acted as a rigid support, preventing structural collapse during the conversion process of TiO2 nanocrystals to TiN nanocrystals. The OM TiN-C was then successfully applied as counter electrode material in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). The organic electrolyte disulfide/thiolate (T-2/T-) was introduced to study the electrocatalytic property of the OM TiN-C nanocomposite. Because of the existence of TiN nanocrystals and the defect sites of the amorphous carbon, the DSCs using OM TiN-C as a counter electrode showed 6.71% energy conversion efficiency (platinum counter electrode DSCs: 3.32%) in the organic electrolyte system (T-2/T-). Furthermore, the OM TiN-C counter electrode based DSCs showed an energy conversion efficiency of 8.41%, whereas the DSCs using platinum as a counter electrode showed a conversion efficiency of only 8.0% in an iodide electrolyte system. The superior performance of OM TiN-C counter electrode resulted from the low charge transfer resistance, enhanced electrical conductivity, and abundance of active sites of the OM TIN-C nanocomposite. Moreover, OM TiN-C counter electrode showed better chemical stability in organic electrolyte compared with the platinum counter electrode.
- Keywords
- mesoporous; nanocomposite; electrocatalyst; dye-sensitized solar cell; organic electrolyte; TRANSITION-METAL CARBIDES; SURFACE-AREA; THIN-FILMS; CONVERSION EFFICIENCY; CATALYTIC-PROPERTIES; HALIDE APPROACH; LOW-COST; NANOPARTICLES; SILICA; ELECTROLYTES
- URI
- https://oasis.postech.ac.kr/handle/2014.oak/15751
- DOI
- 10.1021/CM203672G
- ISSN
- 0897-4756
- Article Type
- Article
- Citation
- CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS, vol. 24, no. 9, page. 1575 - 1582, 2012-05-08
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- There are no files associated with this item.
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