Search

We report a comprehensive investigation of the synthesis of highly transparent and efficient platinum (Pt) counter electrodes (CEs) for bifacial dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) using a fuel-assisted polyol reduction method. By employing various fuels, such as glycine, acetylacetone, citric acid, and fmoc-glycine, as energy donors during the Pt reduction process, we systematically examined the electrocatalytic activity of the resulting Pt CEs towards the iodine-based liquid electrolyte. Our findings demonstrate that fmoc-glycine emerges as the most promising fuel, enabling the fabrication of Pt CEs with outstanding electrocatalytic abilities and an impressive transmittance exceeding 97% through the FTO glass. Moreover, the optimized DSSCs achieved remarkable front-illuminated and back-illuminated efficiencies of 6.28 ± 0.15% and 5.64 ± 0.27%, respectively, surpassing the efficiencies of DSSCs without fuel addition (5.76 ± 0.11% and 4.46 ± 0.34%). The careful selection of the fuel played a pivotal role in determining the properties of the Pt CEs, ultimately influencing the overall performance of the DSSCs. This study underscores the significance of fuel-assisted synthesis techniques in achieving highly efficient Pt CEs for bifacial DSSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A combustion‐assisted polyol reduction (CPR) method has been developed to deposit electrocatalytically efficient and transparent Pt counter electrodes (CEs) for bifacial dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Compared with conventional thermal decomposition of Pt precursors, CPR allows for a decrease in reduction temperature to 150 °C. The low‐temperature processing is attributed to adding an organic fuel, acetylacetone (Hacac), which provides extra heat to lower reduction energy. In addition, the stable Pt complexes can simultaneously be formed in ethylene glycol (EG) and Hacac system, which leads to Pt nanoparticle size regulation. A ratio of Hacac to EG is optimized to achieve excellent electrocatalytic activity and high visible light transmittance for CEs. The bifacial DSSCs fabricated with CPR‐Pt CEs (EG : Hacac=1 : 16) reach efficiencies of 6.71±0.16% and 6.41±0.15% in front and back irradiations, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the effects of annealing temperature and vacuum treatment on the crystallinity and ferro-electric properties of solution-casted poly(vinylidene-fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene), P(VDF-TrFE), thick films. We varied the annealing temperature from 70 °C to 150 °C and achieved high-quality ferroelectric thick films annealed at 130 °C. Ferroelectric domains and their properties were confirmed using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with attenuated total reflection mode and ferroelectric/piezoelec-tric measurement systems. Drying and/or annealing in the vacuum allowed for the improvement of crystallinity and ferroelectric/piezoelectric properties. Importantly, the piezoelectric coefficient, d33, of our optimal P(VDF-TrFE) films after sufficient poling treatment was 36 pC/N and our P(VDF-TrFE) power generator produced an output voltage of -6 V under periodic bending and unbending motions. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 54:466-471, 2014. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers, INTRODUCTION Much attention has been directed towards ferroelectric polymers because they are inexpensive, lightweight, flexible, and easily processed. Ferroelectricity, however, has been found in only a small number of crytstalline [...]