Engineered platinum nanoparticles via pulse electrochemical deposition for bifacially transparent and efficient full-plastic dye-sensitized solar cells

In this work, a highly transparent, flexible, and efficient Pt counter electrode (CE) via pulse-electrodeposition (PED) is developed for bifacial and flexible dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The CEs fabricated with Pt nanoparticles by PED technique (PED-PtNPs) is favourable for large-scale production and cost-effective process because the uniform distribution of PtNPs with the size less than 30 nm leads a high catalytic ability, high transmittance, and less Pt loading. The front-side and rear-side power conversion efficiency of full-plastic DSSCs with PED-PtNPs are 5.72% and 5%, respectively. This is 11–18% higher performance than those from the previously reported methods and ~90% of the PCE from front illumination is produced from rear illumination. Moreover, our full-plastic DSSCs produce >80% of the PCE under 1sun illumination regardless of illumination direction and reduction in illuminated light intensity, enlightening the potential to indoor application.