Highly active MoTe2/g-C3N4 thin films-based Pt-free counter electrode for high-performance dye-sensitized solar cells

A cost-efficient and effective alternative counter electrode (CE) to substitute an available commercial counter electrode (CE) to make DSSCs efficient, platinum (Pt)-based CEs for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are required. We show the development of molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe2) incorporated with graphitic carbon nitrides (g-C3N4) thin films with various aspect ratios was fabricated by chemical vapor deposition method on FTO glass substrate. Polycrystalline nature and uniform nanograins are uniformly deposited on the smooth surface of the 2D nanosheets of g-C3N4, which is confirmed by XRD, Raman, SEM, and TEM analysis. DSSC containing with MoTe2/g-C3N4 CE showed high-power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10.21%, which is imminent that of DSSC with Pt/FTO CE (6.56%) and bare MoTe2 CE (5.88%). Moreover, the optimized MoTe2/g-C3N4 CE showed good electrocatalytic activity, highly reduction towards I-3(-), and longer electron life span than compared with other CEs. The reduced cost and excellent electrocatalytic behavior of the thin film MoTe2 create them a substitute CE for DSSCs.