text: Even with the same composition, morphology of the nanoparticles that make up the counter electrode play such an integral role in determining the efficiency of the overall photovoltaic. Because a material's electrocatalytic potential is highly dependent on the amount of surface area available to facilitate the diffusion and reduction of the redox species, numerous research efforts have been focused towards understanding and optimizing the morphology of nanostructures for DSSC counter electrodes.
  In 2017, Huang et al. utilized various surfactants in a microemulsion-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of CoSe/CoSeO composite crystals to produce nanocubes, nanorods, and nanoparticles. Comparison of these three morphologies revealed that the hybrid composite nanoparticles, due to having the largest electroactive surface area, had the highest power conversion efficiency of 9.27%, even higher than its platinum counterpart. Not only that, the nanoparticle morphology displayed the highest peak current density and smallest potential gap between the anodic and cathodic peak potentials, thus implying the best electrocatalytic ability.
  With a similar study but a different system, Du et al. in 2017 determined that the ternary oxide of NiCoO had the greatest power conversion efficiency and electrocatalytic ability as nanoflowers when compared to nanorods or nanosheets. Du et al. realized that exploring various growth mechanisms that help to exploit the larger active surface areas of nanoflowers may provide an opening for extending DSSC applications to other fields.