Theoretical and experimental insights into the effects of oxygen-containing species within CNTs towards triiodide reduction

摘要： Heteroatom-doped micro/nano-structured carbon materials feature unique superiorities for replacement of noble metal Pt counter electrode (CE) in dye-sensitized solar cells. Nevertheless, the effects of oxygen-containing species on/within carbon matrix on its electrocatalytic activity are seldomly considered and concerned, which will be hindered by a trade off between oxygen defects and conductivity. Herein, we present activated carbon nanotubes (P-CNTs) with abundant active edge sites and oxygen species for simultaneous achieving the activation of sidewalls and open ends. Also, the positive effects of oxygen species are decoupled by experimental data together with theoretical analysis. When capitalizing on the P-CNTs as the CE of DSSCs, the device delivers a high power conversion efficiency of 8.35% and an outstanding electrochemical stability, outperforming that of Pt reference (8.04%). The density functional theory calculation reveals that compared with the carboxylic groups, the hydroxyl groups and carbonyl groups on the surface of CNTs can greatly reduce the ionization energy of reaction, accelerate the electron transfer from external circuit to triiodide, thus being responsible for an enhanced electrocatalytic performance. This work demonstrates that a certain amount of oxygen atoms within carbon materials is also indispensable for the improvement in the reactivity of the triiodide.