A microporous platinum counter electrode used in dye-sensitized solar cells

A microporous platinum film is prepared by a facile rapid thermal decomposition method. Scanning electronic microscope observes a large amount of interconnected and uniform micropores with a pore diameter of 100-150 nm on the microporous platinum electrode. The cyclic voltammetry measurements indicate that the microporous platinum electrode has higher catalytic activity and smaller resistance than the conventional platinum electrode does. By using the microporous platinum film as counter electrode, a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is fabricated, the DSSC achieves a high light-to-electric energy conversion efficiency of 8.15% under a simulated solar light irradiation with a intensity of 100 mW cm(-2). The efficiency is increased by 21.28% compared to that of the DSSC with conventional platinum counter electrode. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.