Abstract
NiS nanoparticles anchored on reduced graphene oxide (NiS/RGO) composites were synthesized by a facile solvothermal route and served as the efficient counter electrodes (CE) for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The electrochemical measurements indicate that the NiS/RGO nanocomposites electrode possesses the lowest charge transfer resistance and highest electrocatalytic activity among all of the electrodes used RGO, NiS and NiS/RGO. The power conversion efficiency of DSSC fabricated with the NiS/RGO CE achieves 7.67 %, which is observably higher than that of using pristine RGO counter electrode (2.92 %) or NiS counter electrode (6.25 %) and also superior to Pt CE (7.21 %) under the same test conditions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
B. O’regan, M. Grätzel, Nature 353, 737–740 (1991)
M. Grätzel, Nature 414, 338–344 (2001)
Y.D. Luo, J. Shen, R. Cheng, X.H. Chen, Y.W. Chen, Z. Sun, S.M. Huang, J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Electron. 26, 42–48 (2015)
C.W. Kung, H.W. Chen, C.Y. Lin, K.C. Huang, R. Vittal, K.C. Ho, ACS Nano 6, 7016–7025 (2012)
H.C. Sun, D. Qin, S.Q. Huang, X.Z. Guo, D.M. Li, Y.H. Luo, Q.B. Meng, Energy Environ. Sci. 4, 2630–2637 (2011)
Z. Ku, X. Li, G. Liu, H. Wang, Y. Rong, M. Xu, L. Liu, M. Hu, Y. Yang, H. Han, J. Mater. Chem. A 1, 237–240 (2013)
H.M. Chuang, C.T. Li, M.H. Yeh, C.P. Lee, R. Vittal, K.C. Ho, J. Mater. Chem. A 2, 5816–5824 (2014)
X. Yang, J. Luo, L. Zhou, B. Yang, X. Zuo, G. Li, H. Tang, H. Zhang, M. Wu, Y. Ma, Mater. Lett. 136, 241–244 (2014)
M. Wu, Y. Wang, X. Lin, N. Yu, L. Wang, L. Wang, A. Hagfeldt, T. Ma, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 13, 19298–19301 (2011)
G. Yue, J. Wu, Y. Xiao, M. Huang, J. Lin, J.Y. Lin, J. Mater. Chem. A 1, 1495–1501 (2013)
J. Zhang, S. Najmaei, H. Lin, J. Lou, Nanoscale 6, 5279–5283 (2014)
Y. Bai, X. Zong, H. Yu, Z.G. Chen, L. Wang, Chem. Eur. J. 20, 8670–8676 (2014)
B. Yang, X. Zuo, H. Xiao, L. Zhou, X. Yang, G. Li, M. Wu, Y. Ma, S. Jin, X. Chen, Mater. Lett. 133, 197–199 (2014)
X. Chen, Y. Hou, B. Zhang, X.H. Yang, H.G. Yang, Chem. Commun. 49, 5793–5795 (2013)
S.Q. Guo, T.Z. Jing, X. Zhang, X.B. Yang, Z.H. Yuan, F.Z. Hu, Nanoscale 6, 14433–14440 (2014)
Y. Zhu, S. Murali, M.D. Stoller, K. Ganesh, W. Cai, P.J. Ferreira, A. Pirkle, R.M. Wallace, K.A. Cychosz, M. Thommes, Science 332, 1537–1541 (2011)
M. Orlita, C. Faugeras, P. Plochocka, P. Neugebauer, G. Martinez, D.K. Maude, A.L. Barra, M. Sprinkle, C. Berger, W.A. De Heer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 267601 (2008)
L. Sun, Y. Bai, N. Zhang, K. Sun, Chem. Commun. 51, 1846–1849 (2015)
B. Yang, X.Q. Zuo, P. Chen, L. Zhou, X. Yang, H.J. Zhang, G. Li, M.Z. Wu, Y.Q. Ma, S.W. Jin, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 7, 137–143 (2015)
J. Shen, R. Cheng, Y. Luo, Y. Chen, X. Chen, Z. Sun, S. Huang, J. Solid State Electr. 19, 1045–1052 (2015)
L. Wan, B. Wang, S. Wang, X. Wang, Z. Guo, B. Dong, L. Zhao, J. Li, Q. Zhang, T. Luo, J. Mater. Sci. 50, 2148–2157 (2015)
D.C. Marcano, D.V. Kosynkin, J.M. Berlin, A. Sinitskii, Z. Sun, A. Slesarev, L.B. Alemany, W. Lu, J.M. Tour, ACS Nano 4, 4806–4814 (2010)
J. Shen, Y. Hu, M. Shi, X. Lu, C. Qin, C. Li, M. Ye, Chem. Mater. 21, 3514–3520 (2009)
H. Wang, Y. Liang, Y. Li, H. Dai, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 50, 10969–10972 (2001)
J.D. Roy-Mayhew, D.J. Bozym, C. Punckt, I.A. Aksay, ACS Nano 4, 6203–6211 (2010)
Q.J. Xiang, J.G. Yu, M. Jaroniec, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134, 6575–6578 (2012)
G.R. Li, F. Wang, Q.W. Jiang, X.P. Gao, P.W. Shen, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 49, 3653–3656 (2010)
C.J. Liu, S.Y. Tai, S.W. Chou, Y.C. Yu, K.D. Chang, S. Wang, F.S.S. Chien, J.Y. Lin, T.W. Lin, J. Mater. Chem. 22, 21057–21064 (2012)
S.M. Zakeeruddin, M. Graetzel, Adv. Funct. Mater. 19, 2187–2202 (2009)
Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the State Key Program for Basic Research of China (No. 2013CB632705), National Natural Science Foundation of China (11174002), Science Foundation of Anhui Education (No. KJ2013A030), and by ‘211 Project’ of Anhui University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zuo, X., Zhang, R., Yang, B. et al. NiS nanoparticles anchored on reduced graphene oxide to enhance the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 26, 8176–8181 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-015-3478-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-015-3478-1