One-step hydrothermal synthesis of marigold flower-like nanostructured MoS2 as a counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells

Senthilkumar, R and Ramakrishnan, S and Balu, Murali and Ramamurthy, Praveen C and Kumaresan, Duraisamy and Kothurkar, Nikhil K (2018) One-step hydrothermal synthesis of marigold flower-like nanostructured MoS2 as a counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells. In: JOURNAL OF SOLID STATE ELECTROCHEMISTRY, 22 (11). pp. 3331-3341.

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Abstract

MoS2 thin films with marigold flower-like nanostructures were grown on conductive fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates through a one-step hydrothermal synthesis for their application as counter electrodes (CEs) in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Different MoS2 thin film samples (A-D) were grown on FTO slides using different concentrations of precursors (sodium molybdate and thioacetamide), while keeping the Mo/S molar ratio constant (1:4.6), in all samples. The effect of varying precursor concentrations (3.2-12.6 mM on MoS2 basis) on the structure of the nanostructured thin films and their performance as DSSC-CEs was investigated. Scanning electron microscopy revealed a material with an infolded petal-like morphology. With increasing precursor concentration, the petal-like structures tended to form bunched nanostructures (100-300 nm) resembling marigold flowers. X-ray diffraction analysis, X-ray photoelectron, and Raman spectroscopy studies showed that the thin films were composed of hexagonal MoS2 with good crystallinity. Hall effect measurements revealed MoS2 to be a p-type semiconductor with a carrier mobility of 219.80 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) at room temperature. The electrochemical properties of the thin films were examined using cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The marigold flower-like MoS2 thin films showed excellent electrocatalytic activity towards the I-/I-3(-) reaction and low charge transfer resistance (R-ct) values of 14.77 Omega.cm(-1), which was close to that of Pt electrode (12.30 Omega. cm(-1)). The maximum power conversion efficiency obtained with MoS2 CE-based DSSCs was 6.32%, which was comparable to a Pt CE-based DSSC (6.38%) under one sun illumination. Similarly, the maximum incident photon-to-charge carrier efficiency exhibited by MoS2 CE-based DSSCs was 65.84%, which was also comparable to a Pt CE-based DSSC (68.38%). The study demonstrated that the marigold flower-like nanostructured MoS2 films are a promising alternative to the conventional Pt-based CEs in DSSCs.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	JOURNAL OF SOLID STATE ELECTROCHEMISTRY
Publisher:	SPRINGER
Additional Information:	tHE Copyright for this article belongs to Springer Verlag.
Keywords:	Marigold flower-like MoS2 Dye sensitized solar cells MoS2 counter electrodes One-step hydrothermal synthesis and counter electrodes
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Materials Engineering (formerly Metallurgy)
Date Deposited:	23 Dec 2018 11:16
Last Modified:	02 Aug 2022 11:24
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/61315

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