Back cover: Solar RRL 3-4∕2017

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were first reported almost thirty years ago and considerable efforts have gone into improving every component in that time. Despite all these efforts, the improvements from the early designs have been marginal and there are still considerable issues to overcome. One such issue is the use of platinum (Pt) as the counter electrode due to its expense and catalytic properties. Here, Batmunkh et al. (Article No. 1700011) used hybrid electrocatalysts based on sulfur-doped graphene with FeS2 microspheres (SGN-FeS2) as a counter electrode (CE) in DSSCs, instead of Pt. Because of the high conductivity of SGN and excellent electrocatalytic activity of the FeS2, the bifunctional hybrid electrocatalyst based device displays a power conversion effi ciency (PCE) comparable to that of traditional Pt CE based DSSC, while also exhibiting excellent stability in ambient conditions. These characteristics, in addition to the fact that the new hybrid is relatively cheap and easy to prepare, mean the SGN-FeS2 hybrid is an ideal CE material for DSSCs.