Applications of tungsten sulfide/carbon nanocomposites in thirdgeneration solar cells and their techno-economic analysis

Abstract

Being confronted with the energy crisis and environmental problems, the exploration of clean and renewable energy materials is urgently demanded. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted widespread attention as potential cost-effective alternatives to silicon-based and thin film solar cells. The counter electrode (CE) material is one of several components of the DSSCs that plays a significant role in the performance, stability, and durability of this PV technology. Activated carbon (AC) is a graphite-based material that has shown a great potential to be used as CEs. Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) such as tungsten disulfide (WS2) and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) have shown vast potential as novel energy materials due to their unique physicochemical properties. Herein, we provide the synthesis process of the WS2/AC nanocomposite CE, the TiO2/WS2 photoelectrodes, and ball milled WS2/AC CEs. The electrochemistry analysis of DSSCs is performed by current-voltage (I-V), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods. The performance and catalytic activity of the DSSCs would dramatically improve using WS2/AC as CE while offers a smaller charge transfer resistance (better conductivity), comparing with WS2-based and AC-based DSSCs. Introducing WS2 to the TiO2 photoelectrodes leads to a better light absorption of the DSSCs particularly in the visible light area, while offers a lower charge transfer resistance. Moreover, the ball milling process of the CE materials illustrates the influence of crystallite size on the DSSC performance. Last but not least, the commercializing potential of the DSSCs is investigated. A module is introduced where the materials, equipment, and distribution of direct manufacturing costs are calculated. The manufacturing costs and the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of this DSSCs suggest that this PV technology could challenge other leading PV technologies. This PV technology has shown a very promising results to be compared with other leading PV technologies