2014-Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit
SIPS 2014 Volume 5: Composite, Ceramic, Quasi-crystals, Nanomaterials & Coatings
| Editors: | Kongoli F |
| Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
| Publication Year: | 2014 |
| Pages: | 578 pages |
| ISBN: | 978-1-987820-07-2 |
| ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
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NiS/CNT composites as counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cell applications
Aman Mahajan1;1GURU NANAK DEV UNIVERSITY, INDIA, Amritsar, India;
Type of Paper: Regular
Id Paper: 269
Topic: 14
Abstract:
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes-nickel sulphide (MWCNTs-NiS) composites have been synthesized as a low cost counter electrode material for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by hybridizing the surface of MWCNTs with nanocrystalline NiS particles using hydrothermal method. MWCNTs are initially functionalized by refluxing the MWCNTs in nitric acid using chemical bath technique. The obtained composites have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), EDX, FTIR and Raman spectroscopic techniques. FESEM results show that NiS nanoparticles with size less than 15 nm are anchored on the outside of MWNTs. EDX study provides the information about the existence of Ni, S and C elements in the composite. XRD studies show the presence of prominent peaks of NiS and MWCNTs. FTIR spectra gives the evidence of the presence of Ni-S, C=O, C=C, -COOH, O-H related peaks. DSSCs have been made using these composite as a counter electrodes alongwith TiO2 photoanode and ruthenium based N719 dye. I-V studies of DSSCs have been performed under dark and illumination conditions. The solar parameters namely current density, open circuit voltage, fill factor and power conversion efficiency have been evaluated. The maximum power conversion efficiency is found to be 4.5%.