Article pubs.acs.org/JPCC
Titanium Carbide and Titanium Nitride-Based Nanocomposites as Efficient Catalysts for the Co2+/Co3+ Redox Couple in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Jiangjing He,†,‡ Jennifer M. Pringle,§ and Yi-Bing Cheng*,† †
Department of Materials Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia § Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, Deakin University, Melbourne Burwood Campus, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125, Australia ‡
S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: Two different kinds of nanocomposites were developed by electrochemical deposition of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) into porous hard template films of TiC or TiN nanoparticles, in order to evaluate their use as alternative catalysts in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) utilizing a Co2+/Co3+ polypyridyl redox mediator. Cyclic voltammograms indicate that both types of nanocomposite show comparable catalytic activity to platinum-coated electrodes. However, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) reveals that electron transfer resistances are significantly reduced with the porous nanocomposite electrodes (
