A novel strategy to prepare a Pt–SnO2 nanocomposite as a highly efficient counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells†
Abstract
A novel strategy was introduced to prepare a Pt–SnO2 nanocomposite, in which the reduction of Pt4+ and the exfoliation of SnS2 were performed in one step. The Pt–SnO2 nanocomposite was applied as the counter electrode (CE) for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). When compared with the energy conversion efficiency (Eff) of SnO2 CE based DSCs, the DSCs with Pt–SnO2 CE showed an overall Eff of 8.83%, giving an improvement of 198%. Meanwhile, better electrocatalytic activity towards I3−/I− redox pairs than Pt CE indicated that the Pt–SnO2 nanocomposite was a promising electrocatalyst for DSCs. Moreover, the low Pt content of the Pt–SnO2 nanocomposite would accelerate the large-scale applications of DSCs in the future.