Mesoporous carbon-imbedded W2C composites as flexible counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

Mesoporous carbon (MC)-imbedded tungsten carbide (W2C) composites are synthesized via a simple methodology and subsequently used as flexible counter electrodes (CEs) in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). The W2C/MC composite possesses remarkable electrochemical properties for both novel organic disulfide/thiolate and conventional triiodide/iodide redox couples, with a performance that surpasses those of W2C and MC separate components. Thus, the iodide electrolyte based-DSCs involving W2C/MC as a flexible CE shows a power conversion efficiency (PCE) as high as 7.61%. Remarkably, the W2C/MC composite is also found to be suitable as a CE for organic sulfide redox couple electrolyte based-DSCs, showing a much higher PCE (5.96%) as compared to their separate W2C and MC component counterparts (5.08 and 4.38%, respectively).