The platinum electrode was put into the inner hole of screw photo-electrode, and then they were all put into the glass tube.
The electrolyte, consisting of 0.5 mol/L LiI (Fluka, P98%), 0.05 mol/L I2 (Fluka, P99.95(RT)), and 0.5 mol/L 4-tert-butylpyridine (Aldrich, 99%) in acetonitrile, was also introduced to the tube. Finally clay was used to plug the end of the glass tube, and then coated with epoxy resin on the end to ensure a tight seal. The schematic structure and principles of the 3D-DSSC was shown in Fig. 1.