Application of ZIF-67 based nitrogen-rich carbon frame with embedded Cu and Co bimetallic particles in QDSSCs

A carbon polyhedral composite Cu/Co@NCF coated with copper and cobalt metal particles was prepared conveniently and applied as CE via silk screen method. The concave and rough surface and porous structure of Cu/Co@NCF provide sufficient catalytic activity sites, and the encapsulated Cu and Co particles greatly promote the effective enhancement of catalytic activity. With a series of film thickness optimization, Cu/Co@NCF CE of 16 μm thickness shows excellent electrocatalytic performance, contributing to the realization of the photoelectric conversion efficiency of 6.66%, apparently higher than that of Co@NCF CE without Cu-doped (5.27%), and effectively close to that of common Cu2S/Cu CE(7.29%), providing a novel exploration for QDSSCs CE application materials.