ABSTRACT
A dip-coating method was reported to prepare transparent, conductive and ultrathin graphene films, which could be used as an alternative to the ubiquitously employed metal oxide window electrodes for solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells. Availability of stable dispersions is a critical requirement to fabricate high quality graphene films by using the spraying deposition methods. High quality films should not have concentration gradients, sedimentation and agglomeration. In this case, the preparation of graphene suspensions with sufficiently high concentrations is a challenge. Highly efficient thin film counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells were prepared by using chemically driven aqueous dispersible graphene nanosheets. A spin-coating process was used to deposit large-area few-monolayer graphene oxide films, which were then converted into graphene films. Homogeneous large-area hybrid transparent films, consisting of ultra-large graphene oxide and functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes, were fabricated by using a layer-by-layer assembly strategy.
