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Specific capacitance of CoS encapsulated g-C3N4 core shell nanocomposite as extremely efficient counter electrode in quantum dots solar cells

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Abstract

In this context, the electrical conductivity and surface activity of cobalt sulphide (CoS) as counter electrode CE is improved by incorporating with graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) to enhance the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of quantum dot sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Core–shell nanocomposite CoS@g-C3N4 composed of CoS core encapsulated by graphitic carbon nitride shell in different weight ratios of CoS to constant ratio of g-C3N4 was synthesised. The prepared composites were assigned as 1:1 (CoS-1), 5:1 (CoS-5), 7:1(CoS-7), 9:1(CoS-9) and 11:1(CoS-11). The different prepared CoS@g-C3N4 nanocomposites were applied as counter electrodes (CEs) in QDSSCs based on TiO2 nanorod arrays with 84.37-nm length and 5.24-nm width as working electrode, cadmium sulphide (CdS) as quantum dots and polysulfide electrolyte. The results show that CoS-7 has superior efficiency with clear improvement in cell performance up to 10.15%, short current density Jsc of 19.5 mA/cm2, open circuit voltage Voc of 0.68 mV and fill factor (FF) of 0.78. The improved performance is attributed to the formation of synergistic heterojunction between g-C3N4 and CoS which facilitates a fast electron transfer at the interface between them; also, more photoelectrons could be produced due to the formation of carbon vacancies in g-C3N4 which made g-C3N4 to hold more excitable electrons and inhibit the recombination of photogenerated carriers. Matching the valence and conduction bands of CoS to those of g-C3N4 also catalyses collecting and mobility rate of the electrons and holes and decreases the recombination rate effectively. Cyclic voltammetry, impedance spectroscopy, the equivalent circuit, analysis of capacitance-frequency spectra, charge transfer spectra and charge recombination were also studied.

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  • 14 December 2022

    Springer Nature’s version of this paper was updated to present correct institution in affiliation 2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Nasr City, Cairo, Postal code 11727, Egypt

    Sawsan A. Mahmoud, Fatma E. Mohamed & Samar H. Bendary

  2. Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt

    B. M. El-Sadek & M. M. Elsawy

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  1. Sawsan A. Mahmoud
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  2. Fatma E. Mohamed
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Mahmoud, S.A., Mohamed, F.E., El-Sadek, B.M. et al. Specific capacitance of CoS encapsulated g-C3N4 core shell nanocomposite as extremely efficient counter electrode in quantum dots solar cells. J Solid State Electrochem 25, 2345–2360 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-021-04992-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-021-04992-0

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