The Future of Using Earth‐Abundant Elements in Counter Electrodes for Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells

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Abstract
With limited global resources for many of the elements that are found in some of the most common renewable energy technologies, there is a growing need to use “Earth‐abundant” elements as a long‐term solution to growing energy demands. The dye‐sensitized solar cell has the potential to produce low‐cost renewable energy, with inexpensive production and most components using Earth‐abundant elements. However, the most commonly used material for the cell counter electrode (CE) is platinum, an extremely expensive and rare element. A selection of the materials investigated as alternative CEs are discussed, including metal sulfides, oxides, carbides, and nitrides and carbon‐based materials such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, and conductive polymers. As well as having the potential for lower cost, these materials can also produce more‐efficient devices due to their high surface area and catalytic activity. Therefore, once issues such as stability have been studied in more detail and scale‐up of production methods are considered, there is a very promising future for the replacement of Pt in DSSCs with lower‐cost, Earth‐abundant alternatives.

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