Electrocatalytic films of PEDOT incorporating transition metal phosphides as efficient counter electrodes for dye sensitized solar cells

•The novel phosphides/PEDOT hybrid films are utilized as counter electrodes for DSSCs.•The best PEDOT-Ni2P-3 electrode is on par with the costly Pt electrode.•The kind of Pt-free electrocatalytic films presents the durable stability in the practical operation.•The films can be rapidly manufactured by mild method and are beneficial to the scale-up application of DSSCs.