In situ oxidative polymerization of polyaniline counter electrode on ITO conductive glass substrate

Polyaniline (PANI) electrode was synthesized on a conducting indium tin oxide glass by in situ oxidative polymerization to construct a low production cost counter electrode of dye‐sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The scanning electron microscopy image showed that PANI electrode was a porous state with the particles diameter in 20–30 nm. The cyclic voltammogram measurement revealed that PANI electrode had smaller charge transfer resistance and higher electrocatalytic activity for I/I^? redox reaction. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area of PANI was high to 53.114 m²/g, and the high surface area of PANI electrode benefited for the absorption of electrolyte. Finally, we compared the photoelectric properties of DSSC using the PANI counter electrode and platinized counter electrode. The results indicated the efficiency of DSSC with PANI electrode reached 2.64%, which was higher than that with platinized electrode (1.75%). Therefore, the PANI counter electrode with excellent catalytic performance is a potential substitute for platinized electrode to save cost of DSSC. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2011. © 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers