CARBON XEROGELS USED AS ALTERNATIVE TO PLATINUM FOR DYE SENSITIZED SOLAR CELLS

Carbon gels are porous materials with a reticular structure formed by interconnected spherical carbon nanoparticles. The versatility of their properties in terms of structure, form and texture favours their application in many fields: catalysis, energy conversion and storage, etc. Among the different types of carbon gels existing, carbon xerogels (CXG) have been widely used, given their low-cost production and good properties (high surface area, mesoporosity, high purity, etc). In this work, CXGs properties were modified varying the synthesis conditions: resorcinol to sodium carbonate molar ratio (CXG-RC-n, with n= 50 ; 800 or 1050). CXGs were physico-chemically characterized and tested as counter electrode in dye sensitized solar cells. Performance was assessed by voltamperometric polarization and impedance measurements under AM 1.5 illumination.These materials showed good perspectives to replace Pt counter electrodes in dye sensitized solar cells.