Issue 13, 2014

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.

Graphical abstract: Nitrogen-doped carbon and iron carbide nanocomposites as cost-effective counter electrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
30 Oct 2013
Accepted
03 Jan 2014
First published
08 Jan 2014

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2014,2, 4676-4681

Author version available

Nitrogen-doped carbon and iron carbide nanocomposites as cost-effective counter electrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells

H. Xu, C. Zhang, Z. Wang, S. Pang, X. Zhou, Z. Zhang and G. Cui, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2014, 2, 4676 DOI: 10.1039/C3TA14429A

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