NickelPalladium alloy–reduced graphene oxide as counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells

In this work, nickel-palladium (NiPd) alloy-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) has been prepared via liquid-phase deposition (LPD) technique and applied as counter electrode (CE) of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The effect of Ni content on the properties of the sample and the performance of the device utilizing the CE has been investigated. The morphology of the sample is described by rumples and white strips distributed on the ITO surface. The device utilizing the CE prepared with the Ni:Pd ratio of 20:1 owns the highest power conversion efficiency (η) of 2.13%. This is due to this device possesses the lowest series resistance (Rs) of 84.6 Ω and the highest incident photon conversion efficiency (IPCE) of 11.30%. The findings of this work reveal that NiPd-rGO has potential to substitute platinum (Pt) as CE of DSSC since its η is comparable to that of Pt based device. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.