Research Article in dye-sensitized solar cells

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0009261420306710

A stable gel electrolyte based on poly butyl acrylate (PBA)-co-poly acrylonitrile (PAN) for solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cplett.2020.137756

Highlights

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A gel polymer electrolyte is prepared by PAN-co-PBA copolymer for DSSCs.

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PAN-co-PBA gel electrolyte shows the good ionic conductivity of 3.86 mS.cm-1.

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A reasonably good conversion efficiency of 5.23% is attained by fabricated DSSCs with PAN-co-PBA gel electrolyte.

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PAN-co-PBA exhibits good gelation and proper pore filling properties.

Abstract

This work deals the preparation of a new polymer gel electrolyte using an efficient poly (acrylonitrile)-co-poly (butyl acrylate) (PAN-co-PBA) for solid-state DSSCs. Prepared PAN-co-PBA exhibited the superabsorbent behavior as seen the carboxylate group in copolymer. An excellent gelation with iodide couple and high ionic conductivity of 3.86 mS/cm was recorded for PAN-co-PBA gel electrolyte. Fabricated DSSC with 7% PAN-co-PBA attained the highest overall conversion efficiency of ∼5.23% along with high JSC=13.16 mA/cm2, VOC=0.646 V and FF=0.62. Improved DSSC performance might be related to excellent gelation and high ionic conductivity of PAN-co-PBA gel electrolyte, resulting in improving interfacial contact and pore filling.

Keywords

Polymer Electrolytes

Co-polymer

Dye Sensitized Solar Cell

Ionic conductivity

Photocurrent density