High-Porosity Carbon Processed from Mixtures of Furfuryl Resin-Poly(ethylene glycol)-Benzenesulfonyl Chloride and Its Application for Catalyzing Tri-iodide Reduction

Xinyu Institute of New Energy, Xinyu University, Xinyu 338004, China

^a Corresponding author: xushunjian@126.com

Abstract

High-porosity carbon (HPC) was first prepared from a novel mixture system of furfuryl resin as carbon-yielding precursor, poly(ethylene glycol) with low molecular weight as pore-forming agent and benzenesulfonyl chloride (BSC) as cured catalyst, and then employed as catalyst for counter electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). The pore structures of HPC are tailored by changing BSC amount from 2% to 14%. Especially, when BSC amount ascends from 4% to 8%, the apparent porosity of HPC rises from 59.58% to 68.02% and the median pore size from 0.429 to 3.164 μm, except that some globular carbons initially occur on the carbon skeleton. Since the HPC derived from 4% BSC has high porosity and the most quantity of small-sized pores to enlarge its surface area allowing for the most catalytic active sites for tri-iodide reduction, the resulted counter electrode exhibits the best catalytic activity and the highest efficiency for use in DSCs.