Morphology dependence of performance of counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells of hydrothermally prepared hierarchical Cu ₂ZnSnS₄ nanostructures

Various novel hierarchical Cu₂ZnSnS₄ nanostructures were successfully prepared by a solvothermal approach. Their structures and morphologies were characterized using XRD and SEM, and the photovoltaic and catalytic performance based on those prepared hierarchical Cu ₂ZnSnS₄ nanostructures as counter electrode (CE) materials in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) was investigated. Results indicated that the photovoltaic and catalytic performance of DSSCs depend on the microstructures and morphologies of the electrodes, and the sample with monodisperse nanoparticle structure as CE yielded an overall light conversion efficiency of 6.98% with a fill factor of 66.0%, a short circuit current of 14.26 mA cm^-2 and an open circuit voltage of 0.74 V, which were comparable with those of Pt (η = 6.91%) under the same device configuration.