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Engineered Porous Silicon Counter Electrodes for High Efficiency Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

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posted on 2014-06-25, 00:00 authored by William R. Erwin, Landon Oakes, Shahana Chatterjee, Holly F. Zarick, Cary L. Pint, Rizia Bardhan
In this work, we demonstrate for the first time, the use of porous silicon (P-Si) as counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with efficiencies (5.38%) comparable to that achieved with platinum counter electrodes (5.80%). To activate the P-Si for triiodide reduction, few layer carbon passivation is utilized to enable electrochemical stability of the silicon surface. Our results suggest porous silicon as a promising sustainable and manufacturable alternative to rare metals for electrochemical solar cells, following appropriate surface modification.

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