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Engineered Porous Silicon Counter Electrodes for High Efficiency Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
journal contribution
posted on 2014-06-25, 00:00 authored by William
R. Erwin, Landon Oakes, Shahana Chatterjee, Holly F. Zarick, Cary L. Pint, Rizia BardhanIn 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.