Antimony tin oxide/lead selenide composite as efficient counter electrode material for quantum dot-sensitized solar cells.

Antimony tin oxide (ATO)/lead selenide (PbSe) composite was rationally designed and fabricated on fluorine doped tin oxide glass (FTO) for using as counter electrode (CE) of quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs). The electrocatalytic activity of the CE is deeply investigated in the polysulfide electrolyte by employing the Tafel, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) of the symmetrical cells. The results confirm that the ATO/PbSe CE has better electrocatalytic activity and stability than that of PbSe CE obtained by pulse voltage electrodeposition (PVD). The enhanced electrocatalytic performance of ATO/PbSe CE can be attributed to its high specific surface area, excellent permeability, conductivity and interface connectivity, which provide more electrocatalytic active sites for the reduction of polysulfide species, as well as fast channels for ions diffusion and electron transport. As a result, the CdS QDSSCs and CdS/CdSe co-sensitized QDSSCs assembled by the ATO/PbSe CE exhibits better power conversion efficiency (η) of 1.72% and 5.59%, respectively than that of PbSe CE obtained by PVD. Furthermore, photovoltaic property of the ATO/PbSe CE in CdS/CdSe co-sensitized QDSSCs keeps stable for over 200 min. This present work provides a simple and effective strategy for the construction of high-performance CE materials of QDSSCs.

First-principles study of energetic complexes (II): (5-cyanotetrazolato-N2) pentaammine cobalt (III) perchlorate (CP) and Ni, Fe and Zn analogues.

First-principles methods using the TPSS density functional level of theory with the basis set 6-31G** were applied to study (5-cyanotetrazolato-N(2)) pentaammine cobalt (III) perchlorate (CP) and Ni, Fe and Zn analogues in the gas phase. The optimized lowest-energy geometry of CP was calculated from reported experimental structural data using the TPSS method. The calculated values are in good agreement with those measured by X-ray diffraction. Ni, Fe and Zn analogues were constructed and calculated on the same basis. NBO results showed that the metal-ligand interactions have covalent character. Donor-acceptor analyses predicted that the delocalization energy E(2) decreases from Co to Zn, so the covalent nature of the complexes increases in the order Co>Fe>Ni>Zn. In addition, HOMO-LUMO composition was investigated to determine the stability of the title compounds.