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Research Article

One-dimension carbon self-doping g-C3N4 nanotubes: Synthesis and application in dye-sensitized solar cells

Xue Li, Kai Pan, Yang Qu( ), Guofeng Wang( )
Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material ChemistryMinistry of EducationSchool of Chemistry and Materials ScienceHeilongjiang UniversityHarbin150080China
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Abstract

One-dimension carbon self-doping g-C3N4 nanotubes (CNT) with abundant communicating pores were synthesized via thermal polymerization of saturated or supersaturated urea inside the framework of a melamine sponge for the first time. A ~16% improvement in photoelectric conversion efficiency (η) is observed for the devices fabricated with a binary hybrid composite of the obtained CNT and TiO2 compared to pure TiO2 device. The result of EIS analysis reveals that the interfacial resistance of the TiO2-dye|I3-/I- electrolyte interface of TiO2-CNT composite cell is much lower than that of pure TiO2 cell. In addition, the TiO2-CNT composite cell exhibits longer electron recombination time, shorter electron transport time, and higher charge collection efficiency than those of pure TiO2 cell. Systematic investigations reveal that the CNT boosts the light harvesting ability of the photovoltaic devices by enhancing not only the visible light absorption but also the charge separation and transfer.

Keywords

g-C3N4 nanotubephotoelectric conversionsolar cells

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Nano Research
Volume 11 Issue 3,
March 2018
Pages 1322-1330
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-017-1747-4
Cite this article:
Li X, Pan K, Qu Y, et al. One-dimension carbon self-doping g-C3N4 nanotubes: Synthesis and application in dye-sensitized solar cells. Nano Research, 2018, 11(3): 1322-1330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1747-4

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Received: 09 May 2017
Revised: 13 June 2017
Accepted: 23 June 2017
Published: 02 February 2018
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017
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