Sulfur-doped graphene with iron pyrite (FeS 2 ) as an efficient and stable electrocatalyst for the iodine reduction reaction in dye-sensitized solar cells

Batmunkh, Munkhbayar; Shrestha, Aabhash; Guo, Gao; Yu, Leping; Zhao, Jing; Biggs, Mark; Shearer, C.J.; Shapter, J.G.

Sulfur-doped graphene with iron pyrite (FeS 2 ) as an efficient and stable electrocatalyst for the iodine reduction reaction in dye-sensitized solar cells

journal contribution

posted on 2017-04-28, 10:36 authored by Munkhbayar Batmunkh, Aabhash Shrestha, Gao Guo, Leping Yu, Jing Zhao, Mark Biggs, C.J. Shearer, J.G. Shapter

As an alternative to platinum (Pt), hybrid electrocatalysts based on sulfur-doped graphene with FeS2 microspheres (SGN-FeS2) were used as a counter electrode (CE) in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Benefiting from the high conductivity of SGN and excellent electrocatalytic activity of the FeS2, the bifunctional hybrid electrocatalyst-based device displays a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.1%, which is comparable to that (8.3%) of traditional Pt CE-based DSSC, while also exhibiting excellent stability in ambient conditions. These characteristics, in addition to its low-cost and facile preparation, make the SGN–FeS2 hybrid an ideal CE material for DSSCs.

Funding

The support of the Australian Research Council Discovery Program (DP130101714, DP150101354 and DP160101301) is gratefully acknowledged. Munkhbayar Batmunkh acknowledges International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS) and Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) for their financial support during his study in Australia.We acknowledge the use of South Australian nodes of the Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility (AMMRF) and the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) at Flinders University. The authors would also like to thank Jade Taylor and Yanting Yin of School of Chemical and Physical Sciences at Flinders University for their help with the XPS analysis.

History

School

Science

Department

Chemistry

Published in

Solar RRL

Volume

1

Issue

3-4

Pages

1700011 - 1700011 (6)

Citation

BATMUNKH, M. ... et al., 2017. Sulfur-doped graphene with iron pyrite (FeS 2 ) as an efficient and stable electrocatalyst for the iodine reduction reaction in dye-sensitized solar cells. Solar RRL, 1 (3-4), 1700011.

Publisher

Version

AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Acceptance date

2017-02-22

Publication date

2017

Notes

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: BATMUNKH, M. ... et al., 2017. Sulfur-doped graphene with iron pyrite (FeS 2 ) as an efficient and stable electrocatalyst for the iodine reduction reaction in dye-sensitized solar cells. Solar RRL, 1 (3-4), 1700011, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/solr.201700011. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. The graphic relating to this paper is at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/solr.201770113