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Direct growth of Cu2ZnSnS4 on three-dimensional porous reduced graphene oxide thin films as counter electrode with high conductivity and excellent catalytic activity for dye-sensitized solar cells

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Abstract

Well-crystallized Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) nanoparticles contain ultrasmall nanocrystals (~ 10 nm) have been grown directly on three-dimensional (3D) transparent porous reduced graphene oxide (rGO) thin films by a facile and scalable solution-based strategy. Few-layer rGO prepared by modified Hummers’ method was used to fabricate hierarchical ultraporous 3D rGO thin films (3DGTFs) with high transmittance (> 75% for 200-nm thick). Single-phase kesterite CZTS nanocrystalline particles were grown uniformly on the surface active sites within the 3D rGO network by hydrothermal method. The as-prepared CZTS/rGO composite thin films exhibited excellent electrocatalytic ability by taking advantages of the high conductivity and high surface area of 3DGTFs and the high catalytic activity of CZTS nanoparticles. As expected, the composite thin films demonstrate more than one order of magnitude lower in electrical resistivity and in charge transfer resistance than the individual CZTS thin films. The conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells using CZTS/rGO thin films as the counter electrode (CE) approached 6.12%, comparable to that using Pt CE (6.45%) and superior to those using individual CZTS CE (1.07%) and rGO CE (0.18%).

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Acknowledgements

This work was sponsored by Guangdong science and technology plan of China (Grant Nos. 2016A010101026 and 2016A040403037), Pearl River S&T Nova Program of Guangzhou (Grant Nos. 201710010143 and 201610010116), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51602065), National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFF0203604), and Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (Grant Nos. 2014A030310253 and 2016A030310360).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Material and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Zhoujun Pang, Aixiang Wei, Yu Zhao, Jun Liu, Lili Tao, Ye Xiao, Yibing Yang & Dongxiang Luo

  2. Xinhua College, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Aixiang Wei

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  1. Zhoujun Pang
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Correspondence to Yu Zhao.

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Pang, Z., Wei, A., Zhao, Y. et al. Direct growth of Cu2ZnSnS4 on three-dimensional porous reduced graphene oxide thin films as counter electrode with high conductivity and excellent catalytic activity for dye-sensitized solar cells. J Mater Sci 53, 2748–2757 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1741-y

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