Simple method for manufacturing Pt counter electrodes on conductive plastic substrates for dye-sensitized solar cells.

A novel, facile, and low-cost method was developed for manufacturing Pt counter electrodes (CEs) of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) on the indium tin oxide-coated polyethylene terephthalate (ITO-PET). This press-transferring method reconciled the temperature conflict between the sintering process of thermal decomposition of H(2)PtCl(6) and plastic substrates. Cyclic voltammograms, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, transmittance spectra and photovoltaic performance were characterized to investigate the transferred Pt CEs. It was found that the transferred Pt CEs on ITO-PET exhibited an excellent catalytic activity comparable with traditional electrodes on FTO glasses. On the front-side, an illuminated conversion efficiency of 7.21% was reached with more than 94% efficiency of conventional thermally deposited Pt CEs on FTO glasses, and on the back-side, the illuminated conversion efficiency was 4.86%, which was higher than that for conventional electrodes.