Synthesis of nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide as counter electrode material for dye-sensitized solar cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are the most promising photovoltaic technology compared to other third-generation solar cells in terms of stability and cost-effectiveness. DSSCs involve the use of platinum-modified conductive glass substrate such as fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) as counter electrode material. Thus, to further reduce the cost of DSSCs, it is required to develop the Pt-free materials and use them as cost-effective counter electrode material for DSSC applications. In the present work, we have fabricated a nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (N-rGO)-coated FTO glass substrates and employed it as counter electrode for DSSCs. The N-rGO/FTO counter electrode exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity to catalyze the redox reaction. The N-rGO/FTO counter electrode-based DSSCs showed good efficiency of 6.7%. This shows that N-rGO/FTO may be a potential candidate for its use as counter electrode for the construction of DSSCs.