Flexible Platinum-Free Fiber-Shaped Dye Sensitized Solar Cell with 10.28% Efficiency

The fiber-shaped dye sensitized solar cell represents a promising flexible power conversion system for next generation wearable electronics due to its facile preparation, lightweight, and good weavability. However, the use of fiber-shaped dye sensitized solar cells is largely limited by their low power conversion efficiency and flexibility. Herein, a flexible Pt-free fiber-shaped dye sensitized solar cell with a high power conversion efficiency of 10.28% is fabricated, by sequentially growing polyaniline layers and Co0.85Se nanosheets on the surface of carbon fibers as the counter electrodes and TiO2 nanotubes grown on the Ti wire as the photoanode. The polyaniline layer can not only work as the nucleation sites for the following deposition of the Co0.85Se nanosheets but also act as the catalytic sites with large specific surface area to further improve the catalytic activity and reduce the charge transfer resistance, while the Co0.85Se nanosheets can further improve the electrocatalytic activity for the transition of I–/I3–, leading to a remarkably enhanced photovoltaic performance of the cell. This result provides a new design strategy for high-performance flexible fiber-shaped dye sensitized solar cells.