Monitoring the Corrosion Inhibition of Nitrogen-Containing Heterocyclic Compounds in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

A challenge facing the successful commercialization of dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs) is in the choice of substrates used in their construction. Previous studies have shown that titanium is the current best choice for mass produced liquid state DSC due to the corrosive nature of the electrolyte, however this is an expensive material for use in large scale production. Other industrial metal substrates such as steel, nickel or aluminium have been shown previously to be prone to corrosion by the aggressive triiodide species contained in the electrolyte. In this study we show that nitrogen containing heterocyclics (NHCs) present in the electrolyte for enhancement of photovoltaic performance can also provide an additional effect of inhibiting corrosion on certain metal substrates.