Dye sensitized solar cells with carbon and cobalt derivatives as counter electrodes

In this report, we use series of cobalt derivatives, conducting polymer and carbon materials as the counter electrodes to replace the conventional platinum in dye sensitized solar cells. The basic cobalt derivatives, Co12 and Co15, showed the capability as the counter electrode with proper short-circuit current (J
SC
) and open-circuit voltage (V
OC
), but the poor conductivity and redox ability result in bad fill factor of the device. After mixing Co12 and Co15 with carbon black, the device performances were enhanced obviously. The further improve was done by combine Co derivative and carbon black to form the new type material CoCB as the counter electrode. The great conductivity and redox ability enhanced both J
SC
and V
OC
, the optimized device show the power conversion efficiency of 7.13%, similar to the control device with conventional Pt electrode. The result showed the potential of cobalt derivatives as the counter electrode of DSSCs.