Development on low cost, high performance polymer catalyst for photovoltaics by catalytic activation

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K21223
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Composite materials/Surface and interface engineering; Electronic materials/Electric materials
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: SEO HYUNWOONG 九州大学, システム情報科学研究院, 助教 (00618499)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: ポリマー / 触媒 / 光電デバイス / ナノ材料 / 反応活性化 / 太陽電池

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In photochemical photovoltaics, conventional catalytic materials have obvious limitations of high cost and scarcity. This study proposed a low cost polymer as an alternative catalytic material. Here, narrow interface between polymer and electrolyte was defined as a cause of low catalytic activity and the increase in the catalytic interface and catalytic activation were studied. To increase the polymer/electrolyte interface, a polymer nanocomposite which is composed of polymer and nanomaterials was applied to the counter electrode of dye-sensitized solar cell. 15 kinds of nanomaterials were tested for the counter electrode. As a result, the polymer nanocomposites containing TiO2, Si3N4, SnO2, and Si nanomaterials showed higher performance than the conventional Pt catalyst. Based on the results of this study, we expect to contribute to the future research and cost reduction of dye-sensitized solar cells.

Free Research Field

工学