Highly conductive polymer materials based multi-walled carbon nanotubes as counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxxythiophene) (PEDOT), polyaniline (PANI) and polythiophene (PTh) based multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) composites were successfully prepared using RF-rotating plasma grafting method. Morphological characterizations of composites were determined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which showed that conducting polymers (CPs) of PEDOT, PANI and PTh were coated on the surface of CNTs. The surface properties of the Carbon Nanotube (CNT) composites were also determined by using Infrared Spectra (FT-IR), X-ray Photon Spectra (XPS), and Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectra (SEM-EDX) analysis. X-ray photon spectra results confirmed the formation of the composites. Composites of MWCNT were used in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as counter electrodes and exhibited short-circuit photocurrent densities of 11.19, 10.70 and 8.54mA/cm(2) for PANI/MWCNT, PTh/MWCNT and PEDOT/CNT, respectively.