Understanding the catalytic behaviour of NiM (M = Pt, Ru, Pd) counter electrode electrocatalysts in liquid-junction dye-sensitized solar cells.

Understanding the electrocatalytic behaviours of counter electrode (CE) electrocatalysts favors to tune the sluggish triiodide (I 3 − ) reduction kinetics and to compare their catalytic activities. We present here the experimental realization of cost-effective CE electrocatalysts from urchin-like NiM (M = Pt, Ru, Pd) for studying the profounding charge transfer processes without sacrificing photovoltaic performances of DSSCs. Our focus is placed on the systematic studies of catalytic activities along with modeling of I 3 − reduction reaction rate constant, extracting k = 4π Dr a N B for zero-dimensional electrocatalysts. The DSSCs yield conversion efficiencies of 9.08%, 7.74%, and 6.86% with NiPt, NiRu, and NiPd CEs, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]