• Le, Hai Viet
• Mai, Lam Thuy Thi
• Nguyen, Thu Anh Thi
• Pham, Van La Tran
• Nguyen, Hoang Thai
• Huynh, Nguyen Thanh Le
• Nguyen, Ngan

Abstract

<jats:p>Non-platinum electrodes for photoelectric devices are challenging and attractive to the scientific community. A thin film of molybdenum disulfide (MoS<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>) was prepared on substrates coated with fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) to substitute the platinum counter electrode (CE) for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Herein, we synthesized layered and honeycomb-like MoS<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> thin films via the cyclic voltammetry (CV) route. Thickness and morphology of the MoS<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> thin films were controlled via the concentration of precursor solution. The obtained results showed that MoS<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> thin films formed at a low precursor concentration had a layered morphology while a honeycomb-like MoS<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> thin film was formed at a high precursor concentration. Both types of MoS<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> thin film were composed of 1T and 2H structures and exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity for the I<jats:sub>3</jats:sub><jats:sup>–/</jats:sup>I<jats:sup>−</jats:sup> redox couple. DSSCs assembled using these MoS<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> CEs showed a maximal power conversion efficiency of 7.33%. The short-circuit value reached 16.3 mA·cm<jats:sup>−2</jats:sup>, which was higher than that of a conventional Pt/FTO CE (15.3 mA·cm<jats:sup>−2</jats:sup>). This work reports for the first time the possibility to obtain a honeycomb-like MoS<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> thin film morphology by the CV method and investigates the effect of film structure on the electrocatalytic activity and photovoltaic performance of CEs for DSSC application.</jats:p>

Topics

• molybdenum
• thin film
• Platinum
• layered
• tin
• cyclic voltammetry
• power conversion efficiency