Exploring inorganic ligand capped nanocrystals (NCs) as counter electrode (CE) materials for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with high conversion efficiency. Here, we reported the preparation of inorganic ligand capped CuInS2 NCs through a ligand exchange strategy. After ligand exchange, the organic ligand capped on the surface of CuInS2 NCs were exchanged to inorganic ligand S2− without changing the shape, size distribution and crystal structure of CuInS2 NCs. When used as CE materials for dye-sensitized solar cells, the inorganic ligand capped CuInS2 NCs films showed higher electrocatalytic activity and electrical conductivity, thus can significantly improve the efficiency of DSSCs. It should be noted that the conversion efficiency of the DSSC increased by 17 times after the organic ligand capped CuInS2 NCs were exchanged with the inorganic ligand. The study in this work may pave a new pathway to explore highly electrical conductivity materials for DSSCs.
