Hierarchical Fe₃O₄-reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite grown on NaCl crystals for triiodide reduction in dye-sensitized solar cells.

ABSTRACT: Cost-effective reduced graphene oxide sheets decorated with magnetite (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄-rGO) are successfully fabricated via a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique using iron (III) nitrate as an iron precursor, with glucose and CH₄ as carbon sources, and NaCl as a supporting material. TEM analysis and Raman spectroscopy reveal hierarchical nanostructures of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) decorated with Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. Fe K-edge x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectra confirm that the nanoparticles are Fe₃O₄ with a slight shift of the pre-edge peak position toward higher energy suggesting that the fabricated Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles have a higher average oxidation state than that of a standard Fe₃O₄ compound. The hierarchical Fe₃O₄-rGO is found to exhibit an excellent catalytic activity toward the reduction of triiodide to iodide in a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) and can deliver a solar cell efficiency of 6.65%, which is superior to a Pt-based DSSC (6.37%).

SUBMITTER: Harnchana V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6365545 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature