Eco-friendly direct-current pulsed electropolymerization of polyaniline nanofibers on synthetic graphite substrate for counter electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells.

This paper reports the study of the effect of varying duty cycles on the synthesis of PANI by pulsed electropolymerization method to the performance of PANI as a counter electrode in DSSC. The deposited PANI is in emeraldine salt form, confirmed by FTIR-ATR and Raman spectroscopy. SEM analysis observed that all PANIs has nanofiber morphology. PANI with a 10% duty cycle provides the smallest average diameters X ˉ = 80 n m and lowest film thickness (11.56 μm), lowest R_CT (59.00 Ω), lowest R_S (40.06 Ω), highest V_OC (0.688 V), and highest J_SC (9.066 mA cm⁻²) that lead to the highest performance (η = 2.402%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]