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Development of MoSe2/PANI composite nanofibers as an alternative to Pt counter electrode to boost the photoconversion efficiency of dye sensitized solar cell

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Abstract

In this work, a simple hydrothermally prepared molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2) was mixed with polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers at 1:1 Wt% in deionized water by using an ultrasonicator for few minutes and then filtered and dried at 100 °C to get MoSe2/PANI composite nanofibers to use as a counter electrode (CE) for high-performance dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The X-ray diffractometer (XRD) result confirms the formation of MoSe2/PANI composite nanofibers with high purity, which is consistent with the result of Raman spectrum. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) studies confirm the decoration of MoSe2 nanoparticles onto the surface of polyaniline nanofibers and their chemical composition was calculated by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The cyclic voltammetry (CV) study shows that MoSe2/PANI composite nanofibers as CE have good electrocatalytic activity, fast electron transport rate with increased current flow than the individual MoSe2 and PANI CEs. From AC-impedance analysis, it is cleared that MoSe2/PANI composite nanofibers based CE have lower charge-transfer resistance (Rct) with higher electrocatalytic behavior for I3−/I− redox pair than the pure MoSe2, PANI, and Pt-based CEs. Moreover, MoSe2/PANI composite nanofibers based DSSC show higher cell efficiency of 8.04% than the pure MoSe2, PANI, and Pt-based DSSCs. It revealed that MoSe2/PANI CE could be used as a promising candidate for DSSC.

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Funding

Dr.AS gratefully acknowledge the Council of Science and Industrial Research (CSIR) New Delhi (Ref. No. 01 (2810)14/EMR-II, dt. 26/04/2017) for their financial support. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the Central Instrumentation Facility (CIF), Pondicherry University for providing the instrumentation facilities.

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  1. Electro-Materials Research Laboratory, Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, 605 014, India

    E. S. Sowbakkiyavathi, Vignesh Murugadoss & Subramania Angaiah

  2. Department of Physics, Kanchi Mamunivar Govt. Institute for PG Studies and Research, Puducherry, 605 008, India

    E. S. Sowbakkiyavathi & Ramadasse Sittaramane

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  1. E. S. Sowbakkiyavathi
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  2. Vignesh Murugadoss
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  4. Subramania Angaiah
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Correspondence to Subramania Angaiah.

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Sowbakkiyavathi, E.S., Murugadoss, V., Sittaramane, R. et al. Development of MoSe2/PANI composite nanofibers as an alternative to Pt counter electrode to boost the photoconversion efficiency of dye sensitized solar cell. J Solid State Electrochem 24, 2289–2300 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-020-04728-6

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