Composite of lampblack and printer toner powder as a low-cost counter electrode material for dye-sensitized solar cells

摘要： Lampblack prepared by using a traditional mustard oil lamp was mixed with printer toner in the ratio of 1:1 by weight and the composite was used as a low-cost catalyst for the reduction of tri-iodide ions in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) of the lampblack showed that the lampblack contains a carbonaceous material of graphitic form. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of the lampblack and printer toner revealed that the lampblack consists of a few tens of nanometer to 100 nanometer sized particles (or nanosheet) whereas the toner powder consists of micron sized particles. The adhesion test of the composite film on the counter electrode (CE) of the DSC showed that the composite film is firmly attached on the CE. The DSCs based on the composite yielded the overall light to electricity conversion efficiency of 3.20 % (Jsc = 7.90 mA/cm2, Voc = 0.667 V and FF = 0.607) compared with 4.18 % efficiency (Jsc = 8.56 mA/cm2, Voc = 0.748 V and FF = 0.654) of the DSC based on platinum when the solar cells were tested in the simulated light of 100 mW/cm2.