Hydrothermal synthesis of the composited WS2–W5O14–MWCNTs for high performance dye-sensitized solar cell counter electrodes

Abstract

WS2 and W18O49/W5O14 (WS2–W18O49/W5O14) powders were synthesized using a hydrothermal reaction of microsized WO3 particles in a HCl + Na2S·9·H2O solution. The resulting WS2–W18O49/W5O14 powders were used as a catalyst in a counter electrode of a dye-sensitized solar cell with an efficiency of 3.37%. To enhance the DSSC’s performance, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) was added to the aforementioned hydrothermal reaction producing WS2–W5O14–MWCNTs composite, which can enhance an efficiency of up to 7.44%, comparable to that of Pt DSSCs (7.53%). This outstanding performance of the WS2–W5O14–MWCNTs based DSSCs is attributed to high electrocatalytic activity and low charge-transfer resistance at the counter electrode and electrolyte interface at the WS2–W5O14–MWCNTs electrode. This facile and cost-effective fabrication of the composited WS2–W5O14–MWCNTs CE could lead to applications in commercial DSSC devices. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.