Phthaloylchitosan-Based Gel Polymer Electrolytes for Efficient Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract EN

Phthaloylchitosan-based gel polymer electrolytes were prepared with tetrapropylammonium iodide, Pr4NI, as the salt and optimized for conductivity.

The electrolyte with the composition of 15.7 wt.% phthaloylchitosan, 31.7 wt.% ethylene carbonate (EC), 3.17 wt.% propylene carbonate (PC), 19.0 wt.% of Pr4NI, and 1.9 wt.% iodine exhibits the highest room temperature ionic conductivity of 5.27 × 10−3 S cm−1.

The dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) fabricated with this electrolyte exhibits an efficiency of 3.5% with J SC of 7.38 mA cm−2, V OC of 0.72 V, and fill factor of 0.66.

When various amounts of lithium iodide (LiI) were added to the optimized gel electrolyte, the overall conductivity is observed to decrease.

However, the efficiency of the DSSC increases to a maximum value of 3.71% when salt ratio of Pr4NI : LiI is 2 : 1.

This cell has J SC , V OC and fill factor of 7.25 mA cm−2, 0.77 V and 0.67, respectively.